S B 

195 
Bl4 



BAILEY'S 



Practical Tree Trimmer 




By the use of this new pruning implement, fruit trees of all kinds can be carefully and 
symmetrically pruned without leaving the ground. The operator can see what lie is doing, and 
prune three trees with less labor and in less time than one can be trimmed with other pruning 
implements which require ladders and necessitate cUmbing. Limbs of any size up to two or 
three inches cut with a few blows of the sliding hammer, which the operator grasps in one hand. 
miCE S3.00. Patent applied for. 

MANUFACTURED AND FOR SALE BY 

JOHN M, BAILEY, "Winning Farm," Billerica, IVIass. 



ENSiiiAfJE. — Wc acknowledge the receipt 
of a copy of the "Book of Ensilage," by 
Dr. John M. Bailey, a pracllcal farmer and 
breeder of Short-horn and Jersey cattle, 
Cotswold, Oxfordshire-down and Vermont 
Merino sheep. It is very seldom we get an 
agricultural Avork of so much value from 
the pen of a man Avho practises what he 
preaches. Dr. Bailey has not only pre- 
served various kinds of forage (chiefly 
fodder corn) in their green state, but has 
fed for months a large stock of cattle and 
sheep upon the Ensilaged fodder. The 
cost of keeping stock by this system appears 
from Dr. Bailey's experiments to be less 
than half as much as upon hay or hay and 
grain. The book gives, in a plain practical 
manner, all the necessary instructions, 
details and specifications for building silos 
of all sizes, and the manner of preserving 
green forage by this system; also, plans of a 
model dairy establishment adapted to the 
system of Ensilage. 

It is printed in a superior manner upon 
heavy paper, in good large type, and hand- 
somely bound in clotli. 

It contains much valuable matter of 
interest to every farmer, daii'yman, and 
stock raiser. 

It is published by the author, whose 
address is "Winning Farm," Billerica, 
Mass. 

Price, post-paid, by mail, •'!;1.50. •<^^^'~t5 



Kindly insert the above {if connistent 
with your views, upon reading the book), 
with such comments as your judgment may 
suggest, 

And oblige yours, 

DJi. J. M. BAILEY. 



]Vt .A.]Vt T^ O T H 

Ensilage Seed Corn. 




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^^^M. 




The Book of exsilage; 



NEW DISPENSATION FOR FARMERS. 



EXPERIENCE WITH ''ENSILAGE" AT ''WINNING FARM: 



now TO PRODUCE MTTJv FOR ONE CENT PER QUART; IJUTTER 

FOR TI'.N CENTS I'KU l>OUND; BEEF FOR FOUR CENTS 

PER POUND; MUTTON FOR NOTHING IF WOOL 

IS TPIIRTY CENTS PER POUND. 

'^. 

"^ BY 

JOHN M. BAILEY, 

Proprietor of " Winning Farm," Billerica, Massachlsetts, ano " Virginia Stock 
Farm," Sussex County, Virginia. 



" I beg to express my gratitude to you for the noble efforts you are making in behalf of the cause 
of agricultural science. Ensilage is to prove a great blessing to the world." — Marshall P. 
Wilder. 

" A work of incalculable importance to American farmers." — Levi Stockbridge, President 
Massachusetts Agyictiltitral Cotlcse. 



^fU. 




BILLERICA, MASS. : 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTH(^R. 

1880. 



Copyright, 1880, 
By JOHN M. BAILEY. 






^t^ 



Stekeotvped and Printed by 
Mills, Knight, & Co., 115 Congress Street, Boston. 



^ 



N 



N 



INTRODUCTION. 



To the farmers of America, I beg leave to dedicate this 
book. It is but a plain recital of what I have accomplished at 
"Winning Farm," by carefully gleaning every thing I have 
been able to procure bearing upon the question of Ensilage. 

I do not claim the credit of originating the system of Ensi- 
lage. That, in a far greater degree than to any other man, 
belongs to M. Auguste Goffart, a distinguished member of the 
" Central Agricultural Society of France," and " Chevalier de 
la Legion d'Honneur," who spent years in experimenting before 
success final and absolute crowned his efforts. 

The following letter would seem to show that the claim for 
originality can hardly be given even to the eminent French 
gentleman who has done so much to bring the system into 
general use in Europe. 

Houston, Tex., 3d May, 1S80. 
Dk. Jno. M. Bailey. 

Dear Sir, — ... It may perhaps interest you to know, that, in all proba- 
bility, this idea of the Silo is by no means European, nor even Eastern, in its 
discovery and origin. I have for years known — having been so informed 
by Mexicans themselves, and others who have travelled through the rural 
districts of Mexico — that many of the farmers of that country preserve 
their grain, both green and matured, in underground cisterns ; the reason 
assigned being that tlie ripe grain was thus protected from the attacks of 
the weevil, whilst the green corn kept well, and was considered better for 
being a little fermented. So tliat it becomes almost a certainty that the 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION, 

French, during their recent occupation of Mexico, seized upon the idea, and, 

taking it with them to France, have only demonstrated its great practical 

utility, &c., just as they did in the case of the artesian well, about which so 

much false history prevails. 

Yours truly, 

D. D. FlQUET, 

I am also informed that some of the earliest Latin writers 
speak of Silos in the ground, wherein the ancient Romans used 
to preserve fruits, grain, and forage in its green state, by sub- 
jecting them to pressure ; so that, after all, the System of 
Ensilage is not so much a new dispensation as one of the "lost 
arts," which, after the lapse of centuries, has just been re-dis- 
covered, improved, and is destined to be the means which shall 
produce a revolution in modern agriculture. 

Probably the idea was carried to Mexico by some learned 
Spanish monk or priest who had an agricultural turn of mind, 
soon after the subjugation of Aztecs by the Spanish adven- 
turers who overran and conquered not only Mexico, but nearly 
all of the American Continent south of it. 

I have but put into practice in America that wliich M. 
Goffart had demonstrated was practical in France. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Disadvantages of the System of Curing Forage i!Y Desiccation . ir 

CHAPTER II. 
Description of the "Winning-Farm" Silos i6 

CHAPTER III. 
Filling the Silo 24 

CHAPTER IV. 
Opening of the Silo ' . . 28 

CHAPTER V. 
Cost of Keeping Stock upon Ensilage 34 

CHAPTER VI. 

Time when Forage Plants contain the Greatest Amount of Nu- 
tritive Value 39 

CHAPTER VII. 

Analysis and Composition of Corn when Cut in its Green State . 42 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Explanations why Ensilage must keep 54 

CHAPTER IX. 
Ensilage adapted to Warm as well as Cold Climates • • • 59 

CHAPTER X. 
A New Discovery 66 

CHAPTER XI. 
Food Ingredients. — Chemical Terms explained 69 

CHAPTER XII. 
Capacity of Silos 71 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Ensilage in the Great Dairy Districts 74 

CHAPTER XIV. 

History of Maize, or Indian Corn 77 

7 



CONTENTS. 



THE IDLENOT PAPERS. 



CHAPTER XV. 
Cost of producing Milk One Cent a Quart, of Butter Ten Cents 
PER Pound, and of Pork Three Cents per Pound, Beef for 
Four Cents a Pound, and Mutton for Nothing, if Wool is 
Thirty Cents a Pound 8i 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Second Idlenot Paper 90 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Analysis of Ensilage from the "Winning-Farm" Silos ... 97 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
How TO preserve Green Corn for the Table 100 

CHAPTER XIX. 

My Experience with Sugar-Beets. — Cost of Raising One-Fourth 

of an Acre, and the Yield loi 

CHAPTER XX. 
Summary 104 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Effect of Alcoholic Fermentation in Ensilage upon "Gilt-Edged 

Butter " 106 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Model Dairy Stable adapted to the System of Ensilage . . .111 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Conclusion of the Book of Ensilage . 119 



PERCHERON HORSES. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Horse of the Future 122 

CHAPTER II. 
Origin, History, Characteristics, and Performances of Percheron- 

Norman Horses t^o 



^ CONTENTS. 9 



COTSWOLD SHEEP. 



CHAPTER I. 
Winning Flock, late Mapleshade Flock 11:4 

CHAPTER II. 
Description of the " Winning Flock " 161 

CHAPTER III. 
Cotswold-Merinos jg^ 

CHAPTER IV. 
Weights of Cotswold-Merinos 157 

CHAPTER V. 
Oxfordshire-downs j-j 

CHAPTER VI. 

Improving Southern Sheep. — How to use Oxfords and Merinos . 174 

CHAPTER VII. 
Criticism upon the Oxford-merino Cross, ey a Virginia Farmer . 177 

CHAPTER VIII. 
IMPROVING' Southern Sheep jgg 

CHAPTER IX. 

How I Propose to Restore the Fertility of an Old Cotton- 

Plantation jg- 



BERKSHIRE SWINE. 



CHAPTER I. 
The "Winning Herd" 



193 



WHAT IS A SILO, AND WHAT IS ENSILAGE ? 



This is what the farmers want to know when the " Neiv 
Dispensation, or system of Ensilage,'' is presented to their 
attention. 

A Silo is a cistern or vat, air and water tight on the bottom 
and sides, with an open top, constructed of masonry or concrete. 
It may be square, rectangular, round or oval in shape, with per- 
pendicular sides, used to store in their green state forage-crops, 
such as corn, sorgho, rye, oats, millet, Hungarian grass, clover, 
and all the grasses. This forage is cut and taken directly from 
the field, run through a cutter which cuts it into pieces less than 
half an inch in length, and trampled down solidly in the Silo, 
and subjected to heavy and continuous pressure. 

The structure is the Silo, which may be above ground, or 
partly or entirely below the surface of the ground. The fodder 
preserved in Silos is Ensilage. 



ERR ATA. 

On the i2th line, page i8, it should read "8 inches apart," instead 
of "8 feet." 

On the 15th line, page 18, "as" instead of "and." 
On I St line, page 89, " i 1-4 inch spruce plank." 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

ACCOUNT OF THE "WINNING-FARM" SILOS. 



CHAPTER I. 

DISADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM OF CURING FORAGE BY 
DESICCATION. 

The great obstacle to raising stock at a profit has 
always been the high cost of all kinds of fodder for 
winter feeding. Especially has this been the case in the 
eastern part of the New England and Middle States. 
The lowest cost at which a cow can be kept in Eastern 
Massachusetts is twenty-two cents per day for feed, allow- 
ing nothing for care except the manure. This makes 
the yearly cost of keeping a cow to be at least $80.30. 
Many of my fellow farmers who raise milk inform me 
that it costs them twenty-six cents per day, which raises 
the cost to $94.90 per year. To meet the lowest sum 
$80.30, at the highest price at which milk has been sold 
in Eastern Massachusetts during the past few years, viz., 
twenty-five cents per can of 81 quarts, each cow would 
have to yield 321^- cans, or 2,730 quarts, — about 5.500 
pounds. 

" It goes without saying," that there is not one herd 
of cows in fifty which averages 5,000 pounds of milk per 



12 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

head yearly. While this is so, that ninety-eight per cent 
of the cows yield less value in milk than it costs to feed 
them, still as a choice of evils farmers are obliged to 
keep them rather than sell the provender they consume, 
though it would bring more money than the milk. By 
gratuitously incorporating a large amount of labor into 
the milk, they are enabled to keep up the fertility of 
their farms, while on the other hand were they to sell 
their forage they would soon impoverish their land. 

Paradoxical as it may seem, the only way the majority 
of farmers near our large cities can make (?) any money 
is, and has been, to sell milk at less than it cost to pro- 
duce it ! This is a very unsatisfactory condition of 
affairs. 

For several years I have been anxiously looking for 
science to show us — agricultural laymen — the way 
out of the wilderness into the promised land, where 
crops could be grown at a profit witJwut the farmer's 
labor being thrown in as straw — quantum stifficit — is 
when figuring up the cost of wintering stock in the 
West. 

Analyses of the soil at one time promised to bring 
about a great change in agriculture, by showing us just 
what the soil lacked to produce bountiful crops of what- 
ever we wish to raise. This proved an ignis fattens, — 
for nearly all soils were found to contain when chemically 
analyzed every thing required to produce scores of 
bountiful crops of almost every thing. 

The trouble was, that while the elements of fertility 
were there chemically, they were not there in such a 
form as the growing plant could avail itself of. 

The next great panacea was to analyze the crop which 
it was proposed to raise, and apply to the soil the various 
elements found in the crop, principally nitrogen, phos- 



DISADVANTAGES OF CURLXG BY DESICCATION. 13 

phoric acid, and potash. The trouble with this is, that 
no one can tell except by a series of careful experiments 
whether one, two, or all three of these elements must be 
applied to the land in order to raise a satisfactory crop. 
Having ascertained that a certain crop can be raised 
upon a certain piece of land by applying- one, two, or all 
three of the above-named elements of fertility ; another 
set of equally careful experiments must be tried when- 
ever a different crop is attempted upon the same land, 
or the same crop upon another piece of land. 

This necessitates the farmers' trying all these experi- 
ments upon their own land ; which is out of the question, 
for while they might, they certainly will not do it. 

Therefore commercial fertilizers will perforce have to 
be applied in the future as in the past, mostly at random. 
I do not wish to be understood as sa)ing that com- 
mercial fertilizers are not valuable and useful in their 
place ; which place is not to take the place of barn-cellar 
manure, but as an economical adjunct to it in the hill 
and drill. 

The chief objection to depending in the main upon 
them is, that in the majority of cases the fertilizer costs 
more than the crop will bring. 

No great agricultural prosperity can come through the 
increased use of commercial fertilizers, except as aids to 
barnyard manure. 

Experiments in England have demonstrated that the 
crop does not increase in proportion to the amount of 
fertilizers applied, even when the most consummate skill 
directs the operations. 

While agriculture has not been benefited to the extent 
hoped for by the. processes mentioned above, there was 
one man who was patiently experimenting, and endeavor- 
ing to solve the problem in an entirely different way. 



14 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

It has long been apparent to every observer, that 
there is an immense loss sustained in the manner in 
which all forage-crops have been cured from time im- 
memorial, viz., by desiccation or drying. While it is 
agreed by all that a larger proportion of all vegetable 
growth comes from the atmosphere than from the soil, 
it does not appear to have struck scientific agriculturists 
that during the process of curing by drying, a very 
large proportion of the most valuable elements of nutri- 
tion are returned to the atmosphere from whence they 
came. 

" The cow which gives us in summer while feeding on 
green grass such excellent milk, and butter of such 
agreeable color and flavor, furnishes us in the winter, — 
— when she eats the same grass converted into hay, — 
an inferior quality of milk, and pale, insipid butter. 
What modifications has this o^rass undergone in chaneino" 
into hay ? These modifications are numerous. It is 
sufficient to cross a meadow when the new-mown o-rass 
is undergfoinof desiccation, to recognize that it is losino- 
an enormous quantity of its substance that exhales in 
the air in agreeable odors, but which, if retained in the 
plant, would serve at least as condiments favoring diges- 
tion and assimilation. All stock-raisers know how rap- 
idly young stock increases in weight in summer upon 
green pastures, and also that the same amount of grass 
converted into hay and judiciously fed in winter does 
not always prevent them from shrinking, and seldom 
gives any increase. 

"The loss by desiccation in fine weather under the 
best conditions, added to that caused by the physical 
modifications which render mastication and digestion of 
the hay more difficult than of the grass, and conse- 
quently assimilation less complete, merits the most seri- 



DISADVANTAGES OF CURING BY DESICCATION. 15 

ous attention on the part of those who are interested in 
aericLiltural affairs. 

" Rains, and even dews, add immensely to the dete- 
rioration inseparable to a process of curing by dessica- 
tion. What agriculturist has not seen a hundred times 
his hay, notwithstanding the utmost care, injured by rain, 
deprived of its richest and most assimilative elements ? 
If these things occur to the common fodder-crops, — 
timothy, orchard-grass, clover, &c., — what would (or 
rather, what does) happen when the saving of fodder- 
crops of high growth and great yield, such as maize and 
sorgho, or even Hungarian grass or millet, is attempted 
by desiccation ? never in our temperate climate could 
we obtain for these a sufficient desiccation by the sun " 
when raised on a large scale. I have seen a neighboring 
farmer working nearly three weeks to cure about an acre 
of millet, and then it was very imperfectly preserved. 

M. Aguste Goffart, whom not only all agriculturists, 
but the whole world ought to honor as it has no other 
man, commenced his experiments in preserving fodder 
by other means than drying, nearly or quite thirty years 
ago. It is reasonable to suppose that he met with fail- 
ure after failure ; but not discouraged he persevered ; and 
during the last four years has so improved upon his 
earlier methods, that the preservation of any and all 
green crops, with all their valuable attributes unimpaired, 
is no longer an experiment. 

I will not take space to describe M. Goffart's Silos and 
methods ; but would recommend all those who wish to 
investigate the French system to send to J. B. Brown, 
Esq., No. 55 Beekman Street, New York (the trans- 
lator of M. Goffart's treatise) for a copy of " Ensilage 
of Maize," and study It. 



CHAPTER II. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE " WINNING -FARM " SILOS. 

I WAITED long in hopes that one of our agricultural 
colleges or experimental stations would take the initia- 
tive. 

The following letters convinced me that there was no 
use in waiting for more half-way experiments to be tried, 
where " half of the fodder went to waste," and the bal- 
ance was so imperfectly preserved that it was " very diffi- 
cult to remove the peculiar and very disagreeable smell 
from the hands after touching: it : " — 

New York, July 26, 1879. 
John M. Bailey, Esq. 

Dear Sh', — ... Can you not effect a combination, and build a Silo 
of masonry, and make a business of it this fall ? I have not yet heard of 
any one who is going to do it thoroughly. ... I speak of combination, 
as all seem to be afraid to do it right on account of the expense. I don't 
think any thing but masonry is sure, and that is. ... I have urged all 
the enterprising and competent farmers I am acquainted with to be the 
first to do it on Goffart's plan, but I have not succeeded as far as I now 
know. 

Yours truly, 

J. B. Brown. 

If any thing was necessary to convince me that I must 
depend upon myself, this letter was enough. Mr. Brown 
knew of Mr. Francis Morris's experiments and their un- 
satisfactory results ; hence his anxiety that I should test 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ''IVL\\\TNG-FA RM' SILOS. I 7 

the system in a thorough manner : therefore I resolved 
to brave the dano-er of beinp- " laiiohed at ; " and as no 
one could be induced to try the great experiment, and 
that the public should not lose the benefit of a system 
of such vast importance to the welfare of our nation, 
and fearing also that the grand discovery of M. Goffart's 
might tall into disrepute in consequence of not being 
tried in a thorough and scientific manner, I decided to 
make the experiment. 

For several years I have been trying to find the way 
to raise profitable crops, or to turn them to profitable 
account when raised. I eagerly scanned every item 
which appeared in the public press bearing upon the 
process of preserving forage-crops in their green state. 
All the plans seemed to give but imperfect results ; 
nevertheless, there seemed to be value in the idea. 

It was therefore with pleasure I saw a notice of Mr. 
Brown's translation of M. Goffart's work upon " Ensi- 
lage." I sent for it. Upon a careful perusal of the 
work, and some little discussion in the columns of "The 
Country Gentleman " with Mr. Brown upon some parts 
of it, I became satisfied that the principle was right, tliat 
]M. Goffart's method — with such modifications as cli- 
matic differences demand — faithfully carried out, would 
bring success. 

Having resolved to try the experiment thoroughly, 
on the seventeenth day of July, 1879, I broke ground, 
selecting a side hill, and locating the Silos so that the 
corner joined the north-east corner of my barn : I ex- 
cavated on the west side and south end seven feet deep, 
and put in a solid stone wall on the west side, 44 feet 
long and 12 feet high. This was built of very heavy 
stone and in the most substantial manner. • 

I afterwards graded up on this side to the top of the 



1 8 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

wall, making a level spot to set an engine and Ensilage 
cutter upon ; also to drive upon to deposit the corn fod- 
der as it came from the fields on dump-carts. It took 
13 days' work of a stone-mason, 43! days' work of 
laborers, and 28^ days' work for one horse, to excavate 
and build the stone wall and foundations for the Silos. 

On the tenth day of August I commenced building 
the Silo walls. These are 15 inches thick, built of con- 
crete in the following manner. 

First, 3x4 joists are set up at each of the angles, 
and also at intervals of about eight feet on each side 
of the walls. These scantling are placed eight feet 
apart, spruce plank 12 inches wide and I2 inches thick 
are set up on the inside of the scantling, which leaves 
15 inches between the planks and the thickness of the 
walls. 

We are now ready to commence building the Silo 
walls. The concrete is made by mixing one barrel of 




aa. — 3X4 inch scantling, to hold i] inch plank while building wall. 
b b. — Doors. 



DESCRIPTIOX OF THE ''VVINNIXG-FARM'' SILOS. 1 9 

Newark, Rosendale, or Akron cement, with three bar- 
rels of plastering sand and four barrels of clean gravel. 
This is thoroughly mixed together while dry. It is then 
wet and thoroughly mixed again, making a very thin 
mortar. 

About three inches in depth of this mixture is put in 
between the planks ; then stone of all sizes and shapes 
are packed and bedded in this layer of concrete, after 
which another layer of concrete is poured in on top of 
this layer of stones, and the operation is repeated until 
the space between the planks all round each Silo is 
filled ; then the planks are raised about ten inches, and 
the space filled with concrete and stones as before until 
the walls are at the desired height. The best way is to 
have a sufficient number of hands to just raise the wall 
the width of the plank each day. Time was pressing 
with me, however ; and I sometimes raised the plank two 
and three times in one day, the concrete " setting " so 
that I was able to do so safely. But I do not recommend 
this haste, as the walls will not be as smooth as they 
would be if the cement had all niofht to " set" in before 
the planks were raised. A 4X12 inch sill was bedded 
on the wall in the last layer of concrete. This sill was 
made of 2x12 inch spruce plank nailed together. 
Upon these sills a building was placed with posts five 
feet high, the beams on the top of these posts being 
thoroughly braced to the posts, thus firmly tying the 
whole structure too-ether. 

In sections of the country where clean sand, gravel, 
or stone is not easily obtained. Silo walls may be con- 
structed of brick in the usual manner of brick buildinofs. 

To put up the concrete walls and bed the sills, to- 
gether with grading the upper side, where the cutting 
of the fodder is done, took of the foreman 28I da)s, 



20 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

work of laborers 149 days, and 34 days' work of one 
horse. Putting up the frame to hold the plank took two 
carpenters two days. It required 124 barrels of cement, 
costing- $1.25 per barrel in Lowell. The teaming of the 
cement and lumber is included in the above account of 
time of horses and laborers. The cost of tjie whole 
structure will of course vary in different locations, as the 
cost of labor and materials varies. 

My Silos (capacity about 800,000 pounds) cost me 
about $500. In other words, Silos will cost about one 
dollar and a quarter for each ton's capacity. Large ones 
will cost less, small ones more. The following diagram 
illustrates my Silos. 

Silos may be built of stone pointed with cement mor- 
tar and plastered on the inside, or of brick, or of con- 
crete as mine are. Whichever material is the cheapest 
and most convenient in any locality is the best to use 
there. Brick will cost more than the concrete. Con- 
crete wall costs about ten cents per cubic foot. 

As a general rule, Silos should be built rectangular in 
form, the width being about one-third the length, and 
the height about two-fifths of the length, and if possible 
should be sunk about one-half below the surface of the 
ground. 

If there is a side hill near the stables, so that the 
surface of the earth will come nearly to the top of the 
wall i at one end of the Silos, it will be found very con- 
venient in filling the Silos, in weighting the Ensilage, 
and in removing the weights as it is fed out. 

These walls must be built sufficiently strong to with- 
stand when empty the pressure of the earth inward, as 
well as the pressure outward, caused by the settling of 
the Ensilage under the superimposed weights placed 
upon it. 



DESCAVPT/OX OF TUE '^ WLXyLXG-FARM-' SILOS. 2 1 




22 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



Where it is not convenient to get stone for weights, 
heavy logs of wood may be used, sawed in pieces about 
three feet in length, and placed on end all over the 
planks which cover the Ensilage ; three feet of wood 
being about equal in weight to one foot of stone. Or 
broken bricks may be obtained at the brickyards at a 
nominal price. Where neither of the above is availa- 
ble, bags or boxes cf earth may be used as weights. 
Where boxes of earth are used, they should be made of 
such a size as to fit close together side by side. 

M. Goffart recommends that the corners be rounded. 
I thouofht that cutting" them off, as shown in the diaoram, 
would answer as well and be much less expensive. I 
find, upon opening the Silo, that the Ensilage is pre- 




Earth-box for weights, showing convenient handles which will not interfere with piling the 

boxes wiien removed. 



DESCR//'/'JO\ OF THE ^' IVrNNING-FA RM'' Sfl.OS. 23 

served as well and settled as evenly in these corners as 
elsewhere ; also that the preservation is just as perfect 
close to the walls as in the centre, showing that a con- 
crete wall is more impervious to air than a brick one. 



CHAPTER III. 



FILLING THE SILO. 



I COMMENCED Cutting my green-corn fodder on Sept. 
22, and finished putting on the stone for weight at three 
o'clock P.M., Sept. 30, putting in about two feet in depth 
daily. This is fast enough ; for the shrinkage will then 
be much less when the w^eights are put on than it would 
be were the Silo filled faster. 

The seven acres of corn-fodder filled one Silo to with- 
in about 5^ feet from the top. Upon the top of the 
Ensilage I put about one foot of rye straw uncut. Then 
I commenced at one end, and floored it over by laying 
i^ inch spruce plank crosswise the entire length. Upon 
this floor I put about 25 tons of bowlders. I am not 
sure that the straw is necessary : further experiments will 
decide. I shall use less next season. 

The Ensilage settled about i^ feet. There has been 
no odor or steam arising from it. The cost of cutting 
the corn up, hauling it to the cutter, cutting it j-o of an 
inch long, and packing it in the Silo, was not far from 75 
cents per ton. 

It was new work. The cutter was not adapted to the 
business, clogging badly and necessitating slow feeding. 
All this combined to make it cost more than it will when 
we become used to the work of handlincj laro-e amounts 
of orreen-corn fodder. 



F/I.LIXG THE SILO. 



The corn-fockler can he cut in tlie field with corn- 
knives cheaper than l:)y the mowing-machine. The men 
as they cut it la)- it in bunches ; for it is much easier for 
the drivers to load it when laid in bunches, than to 
gather it up after the mowing-machine. The extra cost 
in cutting is more than made up by the expedition in 
loading and hauling. 

I think the cost of Ensilaging 300 to 400 tons, when 
we have the right kind of a cutter (Baldwin's Ameri- 
can fodder-cutter all sizes, adapted to large as well as 
small farmers, substantiall)- built and at reasonable prices, 
is the best one I have seen : they are manufactured 
for, and are for sale by, Joseph Breck & Sons, the old 
and reliable seedsmen and dealers in all kinds of agri- 
cultural implements, Boston, Mass.: I have bought seeds 
and tools of them for many years, and have alwa)s found 
them reliable and trustworthy), will not exceed 40 cents 
per ton. This is less than it would cost to go to the 
field, and cut and haul it into the barn ; and, after it is in 
the barn, the labor of feeding the lu/iole fodder is much 
more than to fill a basket in the Silo and eive it to each 
animal. Therefore it is cheaper to cut up the whole 
crop at one time, put it in the Silos, and feed it from 
them to the stock even in summer, than to go to the field 
for it as it is wanted. 

Now, when it is considered that the corn-plant is at its 
best but a few days ; that it can all be put into Silos 
when in the best condition ; and that, notwithstanding 
great care in successive plantings, if used directly from 
the fields, much has to be fed either in an immature 
state, or when too hard for the catde to masticate the 
stalks, — it will be seen that the saving, however consid- 
erable in planting as well as harvesting the whole crop 
at one time, is but a trifle compared to the gain in nutri- 



26 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

tive value by being all cut at the right stage of growth, 
and preserved by the system of Ensilage with all its 
elements uninjured. 

Ensilaofe is therefore the most economical method of 
soiling. The preserved succulent forage is improved by 
lying in the Silos, and at the same time the easiest and 
cheapest road by which green crops can reach the man- 
ger is through the Silo. It practically annihilates winter, 
and places the stock-raisers and dairymen in better cir- 
cumstances than they would be if they had throughout 
the year the waving fields of oats or rye and the luxu- 
riant corn in their best stage for soiling, from which to 
cut the daily food of their animals. The advantage of 
being able to plant or sow the whole crop at one time, 
and to cut and store it all at once, when in its most 
nutritive state, can hardly be over-estimated. 

My corn was planted from the 15th to the 25th of 
June. On one acre was Stowel's evergreen sweet corn ; 
the other six acres, Southern white corn. 

There were at least twice as many tons of the latter to 
the acre as of the former. I shall plant no more sweet 
corn for Ensilage. The corn was all sown in drills about 
three feet apart, one bushel of seed-corn to the acre; 
was manured with about six cords of stable manure 
spread broadcast after ploughing, and harrowed twice 
with a Thomas smoothing harrow. It was planted with 
an " x^lbany corn-planter ; " which, in addition to opening 
the drill, dropping the corn, and covering it, also de- 
posited about two hundred pounds to the acre of a mix- 
ture composed of equal parts of superphosphate, cotton- 
seed, meal, and gypsum. A portion did not come up 
well, and had to be replanted. The dry weather and 
cool nights of the summer of 1879 prevented a rapid 
growth in certain portions. In fact, it was not a good 



FILLING THE SILO. 2 J 

corn year, so that the crop was somewhat uneven at 
harvesting. The leaves at the bottom of the stalks had 
largely become dry and dead, and a sharp frost when the 
cutting was about half finished injured somewhat the 
leaves on that portion still standing in the field. Some 
of the stalks had ears large enough for roasting ; and the 
whole of it, I think, was rather too mature. 

There was estimated to be in the Silo when opened 
125 tons. The crop was very uneven, some parts having 
at least 40 tons to the acre. Upon other parts, where 
the drought affected that which was replanted, the yield 
was not over 10 tons per acre. I do not think it will 
be at all difficult to raise 40 to 75 tons per acre upon an 
average on good corn-land. It should be planted from 
the ist to the loth of June. It will then be in full 
blossom, and in the best condition to cut, by the last of 
August and before any frost can injure it. 

As stated above, the cutting was finished on the 30th 
of September. It was decided to open it on the third 
day of December ; and, as the condition of the Ensilaged 
maize was a question of the utmost importance, it was, 
upon the suggestion of Mr. Brown, decided to have the 
"opening of the Winning- Farm Silos " a public matter 
" «jr //^,? American Initiative." 

Accordingly invitations were sent to quite a number 
of gentlemen, well known for their interest in agricul- 
ture, as well as for the benefit they have conferred upon 
the whole country in the untiring efforts they have made 
to improve not only our system of cultivation, but our 
domestic breeds of cattle and all the fruits of the earth 
which minister to the wants and add to the pleasures 
of mankind. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OPENING OF THE SILO. 

Unfortunately the meetings of the State Board of 
Agriculture and the Massachusetts State Dairy Fair, 
were held on the same day as the opening, which pre- 
vented the attendance of many gentlemen, who, however, 
sent letters of regret expressing great interest in the 
result. 

The followinof letter was received from the United 
States Commissioner of Agriculture : — 

Department of Agriculture, Washington, Nov. 23, 1879. 

J. B. Brown, 50 Becknian Street, New York. 

Dear Sir, — I am much gratified to receive and thank you for the 
invitation to attend the opening of the first American Silo at the farm 
of Mr. John M. Bailey at Billerica, Mass. 

As Congress will be in session' at the time mentioned, it will not be 
possible for me to attend, a fact which I regret very much. Will you 
have the kindness to convey to Mr. Bailey my sincere regrets, and ask 
him to give me a detailed statement of the experiment from beginning 
to end, for publication in my next annual report ? 

I look upon the system of Ensilage as one which has wrought won- 
derful changes in certain French provinces, and from which we may hope 
for greater success in this country. 

It will prove, I have little doubt, a very decided advance in our agri- 
cultural methods. 

Very respectfully }-ours, 

VVm. G. Le Dug, Commissioner. 
28 



OPENING OF rilE SILO. 29 

The following letter from Hon. Marshall P. Wilder 
shows us that neither his advanced age, nor the painful 
accident from which we all rejoice to know he is rapidly 
recovering, has diminished his interest in all that per- 
tains to an improved agriculture : — 

Boston, Dec. 2, 1879. 
Mv dear Sir. — \ would be glad to be at the "Winning reception " 
to-morrow, but I am not sufificiently recovered to take the journey. With 
thanks lor your kind invitation. 

1 am yours as ever, 
Mr. Bailey. Marshall P. Wilder. 



Ramsey's, Bergen County, N.J., Nov. 27, 1879. 
Mr. J. B. Brown. 

My dear Sir, — In reply to your letter of the 19th inst., I regret to 
say that I shall leave in a few days for California, and am therefore un- 
able to accept the invitation of Mr. Bailey to be present at the opening 
of his Silo of 1 20 tons of " Ensilage," on the 3d of December, on his 
farm at Billerica, Mass. 

I have no doubt that the preservation of corn-stalks green for winter 
fodder will soon become the great resource of our farmers, giving, as it 
will, increased remuneration to agricultural industry. 

Mr. Bailey is to be congratulated upon giving the first public exhi- 
bition of Ensilage, which promises such important changes. 

I am confident, from the investigation I have given the subject, that 
it will be a convincing showing of its great national value to all present. 
I have felt for the last three years that I could render no greater benefit 
to my neighbors, than to direct their attention to this system of hus- 
bandry. 

I am, with great respect, )'Our obedient servant, 

RoDMAX M. Price. 

MoRETON Farm, Rochester, X.Y., Dec. 2, 1S79. 
JOHX M. Bailey. 

Dear Sir, — I received your kind invitation to be with >ou to-morrow. 
Nothing would please me better ; but I am so busy with my seeds, that 
it will be impossible to spare the time. 
I think you have struck the right idea. 

Respectfully yours, 

Jos. Harris. 



30 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

Letters were also received from the apricultural edit- 
ors of the " New York Tribune," " New York World," 
" Land and Home," and other journals, asking for infor- 
mation as to the experiment ; and also from Professors 
Stockbridge, Goessmann, and Maynard, Richard Good- 
man, Esq., H. H. Commins, Esq., William H. Bowker, 
Esq., T. G. Huntington, O. A. Hillman, S. C. Stone, and 
many others interested in agricultural developments. 

Mr. G. B. Brown, President of the " New York Plouofh 
Company," and translator of M, Goffart's book, was pres- 
ent ; and there were quite a large number of gentlemen 
from New York and the New England States. 

After briefly looking at the Berkshire swine, Oxford- 
shire-down and Cotswold sheep, and Jersey and short- 
horn cattle, the company repaired to the Silos ; and to 
say that there was a good deal of anxiety felt while the 
stones and spruce plank were being removed for the 
space of about three feet at one end of the Silo, would 
be statinof no untruth. 

The top and edge of the Ensilage next the door for 
two or three inches, was somewhat musty, and in places 
almost rotten. But directly below this the fodder came 
out cool, soft, moist, and wholesome looking, with a 
strong alcoholic odor, and quite acid. It was evident 
that fermentation had been oroinor on until acetic acid had 
been formed. 

The following from the report of the editor of " The 
Lowell Journal," who was present, will describe the im- 
pression received by those present at the "opening: " — 

" There was, however, no unpleasant taste, except the acidity, and no 
unpleasant smell. 

" There were twenty or thirty head of cattle on the farm, as well as 
sheep, swine, and horses. They were all given some of the Ensilage. 

" The hogs ate it greedily. The sheep also seemed very fond of it. 



OPEA/XG OF THE S/LO. 3 I 

The neat stock were not so eager for it at first ; hut nios of them 
seemed after a while to acijuire a taste for it, and soon manifested a 
desire for more. 

"There were spots where the fodder was not so sour ; but it was evi- 
dent tliat it did not come out the sweet, fresii, and ]jalatable foildcr 
which has been secured in the French Silos. 

" The reasons which may be ascril)ed for this are various. Mr. Urown 
thought it was due to the maturity of the fodder when cut. 

" It may be that being just at the upper corner, near the door, tlie 
preservation from oxygen was less perfect than will prove to have been 
the case farther down in the mass. 

" The numerous dry and dead leaves caused by the drought and frost 
may possibly have something to do with it. We shall know more about 
this as the Silo is emptied. 

" One thing is certaiiouthus tar : the fodder is so well preserved that 
the cattle will eat it, and there is no question but that they will thrive 
on it. 

" Since writing the above we have received a note from Mr. Bailey, 
dated Dec. 5, in which he says, — 

" ' Yesterday morning we fed what Ensilage was taken from the Silo 
while you were here. All of the animals but four ate it all, licking out 
their mangers clean. The four finally ate theirs up before noon. This 
morning we fed about a bushel to each grown animal, and a proportionate 
feed to younger ones. I am pleased to state that they have all eaten it 
up clean. The acidity appears to be much less than when first opened, 
and there is emitted — as there should be — a strong alcoholic odor. I 

think that under the circumstances we can claim it as a perfect suc- 

> )> ^ 

cess. 

There can be no doubt that the cause of this acidity, 
and the alcohohc odor in the Ensilage, is on account of 
the stalks being too mature before cutting. 

Professor Goessmann writes that "acetic' acid had 
formed in the stalks before they were cut." 

If cut at the period of blossoming, but very little 
acetic fermentation will take place in the Silo, and no 
alcoholic fermentation until after it has been exposed in 
a large pile to the action of the atmosphere. 

I think there is always more or less acidity present. 



32 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

From a report to the Central Agricultural Society of 
France by a " committee of the sections on live stock, 
physico-chemical and high cultivation," upon the subject 
of the " Ensilage of green-cut corn-fodder seance, April 
7, 1875," I make the following extract: — 

" The fodder has an alcoholic odor quite marked and slighdy acid. It 
is eaten with avidity by the cows, and constituted their sole food since 
the commencement of winter. We were struck by the hearty appear- 
ance of the 28 or 30 cows. Their eyes were bright, their skins soft, and 
they are in good condition. (Goffart's ' Ensilage of Maize.')" 

On the 9th of December the following report was 
made to "The Country Gentleman : " — 

ENSILAGE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

Editors Couxtry Gentlemax : — 

The •' Winning Farm Silos " are a perfect success. The preserved 
corn-fodder which was cut about -^^ of an inch long, and placed in the 
Silo about the last of September, and subjected to heavy and continuous 
pressure, is being fed to the stock. They all eat it with aviditv. Its 
preservation is perfect. It has an alcoholic odor, and is somewhat 
acid. My stock eat it all, lick out their mangers, and look wistfully for 
more. When the Silo was first opened, Dec. 3, there appeared to be a 
strong acidity, so much so that some of the gentlemen present were some- 
what disappointed ; but as we get farther into the mass of Elnsilage the 
acidity is much less, while the alcoholic odor upon exposure to the air 
several hours is much stronger. 

I tried a little experiment with it this afternoon. I had a pen of seven 
Oxfordshire-downs, and another pen of five maple-shade Cotswolds. 
Tiiey had just been fed with some clean bright hay. In another feed- 
trough I put some Ensilage. Five of the seven Oxfordshire-downs left 
the hay, and ate the Ensilage, and four of the five Cotswolds left their 
hay and did likewise. 

I feed, in place of the ration of hay, 25 to 30 pounds of Ensilage to 
each cow in the morning, and the same at night, which has lain upon 
the barn-floor all night, during which time fermentation is quite active so 
that it is warm in the morning. 

The Ensilage in the Silo which is compacted, although exposed to 



OPENING OF THE SILO. 



33 



the air seems to undergo no change. It is pressed so hard that the air 
cannot enter, and therefore does not affect it at all. I am delighted with 
the success of the enterprise. 

I believe it is possible to keep four cows a year upon corn fodder 
Ensilage raised upon one acre of land. Verily we are under the greatest 
obligation to M. Goffart, and to J. B. Brown ; to the former for demon- 
strating to our satisfaction that corn-fodder can be successfully preserved 
in this manner, and to the latter for translating M. Goffart's work into 
English so that we may profit by his great success. If he is truly blest 
who '•' causes two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before," 
how much more to be honored is this man who has taught us how to 
keep four cows upon an acre of land where one cow would find but 
scanty subsistence before ! A most fortunate agricultural revolution is 
indeed impending, and one which I trust many of our progressive farm- 
ers will engage in during the coming season. 

John M. Bailey. 
"Winning Farm," Billerica, Mass. 



CHAPTER V. 

COST OF KEEPING STOCK UPON ENSILAGE. 

The followinof statement from a p-entleman whose 
estate joins " Winning Farm " will be read with interest. 

John M. Bailev, Esq., 

Winning F'arm, Billerica, Mass. 

Dear Sir, — In accordance with my suggestions made on the occa- 
sion of the opening of your Silo, Dec. 3, I have used your Ensilage in 
manner as follows. My small herd of six cows calved early in the 
spring, viz., in the months of March and April. They are of the ordinary 
New England stock, with no pretensions to any pedigree. I sell no milk ; 
and my cows, such as they are, were selected more for their butter-mak- 
ing qualities than for any extra milking properties. These cows had 
served through the season for butter-making, and with the commence- 
ment of cold weather and the stoppage of " fall feed " had begun to 
shrink in milk. 

Previous to the use of your Ensilage, the six cows had been fed two 
bushels of flat turnips, with four quarts of bran to each cow daily, and 
what dry corn-fodder they would eat. The amount of milk given by 
them daily was 30 quarts, from which 18 pounds of butter were made 
per week. 

I commenced using your Ensilage on Wednesday, Dec. 10, and left 
off using it on the 17th, feeding 18 barrels, or 54 bushels, during the 
week. All but one cow took to the fodder at first kindly, and their 
appetite for it increased from day to day. There was an increase of 
milk from 30 quarts to 35 quarts daily. The cream was thicker, of 
richer color, and of better quality, than from their previous feeding. 
One sack of bran of the value of 90 cents was all that the cows ate dur- 

34 



COST OF KEEPING STOCK UPON ENSILAGE. 35 

jng the week in addition to your Ensilage, except a small amount of 
bog or meadow hay of nominal value. 

The account for this week would therefore be for the six cows : — 

54 bushels Ensilage (1,620 lbs.), @ $.001 .... §1.62 
I bag wheat shorts . 90 

$2.52 

The cows should be credited with 22 pounds of butter at 35 cents 
a pound, and say 210 quarts of skim-milk at one cent per quart, which 
I consider its value as feed for the pigs. 

22 pounds butter, @ $.35 $770 

210 quarts skim-milk .01 ...... . 



Cost of keeping ......... 

Profit 

The flavor of the butter was excellent, and its color a good yellow 
equal to that which sweet pasture gives. 

In the above brief statement I have confined m)'self strictly to facts, 
and will make no comments, except to say that I am convinced that 
your method of preserving green fodder for use in winter time is a suc- 
cess, and will eventually be adopted in this part of the country. 

Henry B. Judkins. 

Since receiving the above, Mr. Judkins informs me 
that his cows shrank so that they gave but 20 quarts 
daily, three days after resuming dry feed. 

This is about what they would have shrunk to by this 
time, had the natural shrinkage not been arrested and an 
increase caused by the one week's feed of Ensilage. 

I have a Jersey heifer 20 months old which has 
doubled her yield of milk since I began to feed Ensilage. 
I have one cow 13 years old which came in Dec. i, three 
weeks ago. She is now giving 16 quarts daily upon 60 
pounds of Ensilage and four quarts of shorts. I am 
feeding 35 head of cattle and 100 head of sheep upon 45 
bushels (about 1,350 pounds) of Ensilage, and 80 cents' 



36 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

worth of shorts, and less than 50 pounds of hay daily. 
I cannot make the cost of corn Ensilage to be more than 
one mill per pound, or $2 per ton. 

It will, therefore, be seen that the expense of keeping 
35 horned animals and 100 sheep at "Winning Farm" 
is as follows : — 

1,350 pounds of Ensilage (a) ^.001 . . . ^1.35 
90 pounds of shorts . . . . . .80 

50 pounds of hay (a) ^15 per ton . . . .37-^ 



Total cost per day ...... $2.52^ 

The cost of keeping the above stock upon hay and 
grain would be as follows : — 

20 pounds of hay to each animal (ten yearlings count- 
ed as five cows), making 30 head, would require daily as 
follows : — 

600 pounds of hay for cattle, at ^15 per ton. . . . $4 50 

200 pounds of hay for 100 sheep. . . . . . i 50 

120 pounds of shorts for cattle, at $18 per ton . . . i 08 

40 pounds of shorts for sheep ...... 36 



Total cost of keeping 30 cattle and 100 sheep per day on hay 

and grain . . . . . . . . . $7 44 

Cost of keeping the above on Ensilage as above . . . 252^ 



Daily balance in favor of Ensilage . . . . . ;^4 91^ 

From my experience in feeding so far, I consider Ensi- 
lage to be worth one-half as much as the best timothy 
hay. I would not, however, exchange Ensilage for hay 
and give two tons for one. I believe that 40 to 75 tons 
of corn-fodder can easily be raised upon an acre, which 
if properly Ensilaged will be equal to from 20 to '^^l tons 
of hay. To receive the fullest benefit, however, I think 
there should be some nitrogenous food, such as oats, 
shorts, pea or bean meal, oil meal or animal meal, fed 
with the Ensilage. 



COST OF KEEPING STOCK UPON ENSILAGE. T^-j 

Judging from the appearance and the droppings of 
my animals, I beheve they are fed as high as young and 
breeding stock should be fed. 

There is another advantage : after the corn is cut and 
put into the Silo, — the last of August or first of Septem- 
ber, — the land can then be ploughed, and sown with 
winter rye. The summer, fall, and winter accumulations 
of manure can be hauled out, and spread broadcast upon 
the rye at any time after it is sown, during the fall and 
winter months or early spring. The rye will be in blos- 
som, and ready to cut, between the loth and 25th of 
May, and should be cut ^V of an inch long, and put into 
the Silo in the same manner as the corn fodder. 

Land highly manured ought to give ten tons of green 
rye for Ensilage per acre. The manure having been 
applied to the land during the time it was occupied by 
the rye, nothing remains but to plough in the rye stubble, 
and drill in the corn. Thus 40 to 75 tons of Ensilage 
can be easily raised from one acre of good corn-land. 

I roll my fodder-corn land as soon as planted, harrow 
with a Thomas smoothing-harrow just as it is prick- 
ing through the ground, and once every week or ten 
days until it is about a foot high. Then, if there appear 
any weeds, I go through it once with a horse-hoe. I 
like the Centennial horse-hoe, manufactured by Tim- 
othy B. Hussey, North Berwick, Me., best of any I have 
tried. 

In conclusion, let me urge every farmer, who can, to 
build a Silo. They will have to build sheds to accommo- 
date the stock they will be able to keep. Silos and 
cheap cattle-sheds are much cheaper than expensive hay- 
barns. 

No manure-cellars are needed. Cement the floors of 
the cattle-sheds {\t costs less than a plank floor), so as 



38 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

to save all the manure, both solid and liquid ; bed them 
with leaves, meadow hay, or any kind of hay, for that 
matter. 

Apply the manure as it is made, broadcast upon the 
rye fields. The land will continually grow richer, the 
crops of rye and corn fodder heavier. The stock upon 
the farm will increase in number and value until aericul- 
ture will become the most profitable as well as the 
noblest avocation which shall engage the attention of 
intelligent and refined manhood. 



The foregoing was — it will be seen — written at 
intervals, from the time of opening the Silo until about 
the third day of January, when I went to Virginia to visit 
my stock farm in Sussex County. A month had elapsed 
since I first began to feed the Ensilage, and I was absent 
from " Winning Farm " about a month. 

Although letters from my manager had informed me 
from time to time that " the Ensilage works better every 
day," still I was unprepared to see such an improve- 
ment in the general appearance of the stock. They 
looked as if they had been at pasture with feed up to 
their eyes, sleek and smooth. Hundreds of people have 
visited "Winning Farm" during the winter to see the 
Silos, and examine the stock fed upon Ensilage. All 
expressed the same surprise and delight at their appear- 
ance. It is all eaten, not a pound is wasted : sheep, 
hogs, cattle and horses, all like it. Sheep seem to be as 
fond of it as they are of oats. In January I purchased 
the maple-shade flock of Cotswolds, or, at least, all the 
best ewes in the flock. Since their arrival at " Winning 
Farm " they have been fed Ensilage daily. 



CHAPTER VI. 

TIME WHEN FORAGE PLANTS CONTAIN THE GREATEST AMOUNT 
OF NUTRITIVE VALUE. 

A GREAT advance has been made within a few years in 
agricLikural knowledge ; and among the most valuable 
facts learned has been this, that grass contains a greater 
amount of nutrition when in blossom than at any time 
before or afterwards. 

What is true of the common grasses, viz., timothy, red- 
top, orchard-grass, and clover, is equally true of corn, 
which is but a gigantic grass. 

If, then, a stalk of corn contains at the time it blossoms 
more nutritive value than at any subsequent time, how 
foolish and wasteful to let it stand for the ear to form at 
the expense of the stalk, while at the same time great 
loss is going on from the leaves and the stalk, as is the 
case with other and smaller grasses. 

The seed formed in the head of a stalk of timothy or 
other grass — while very rich and nutritious in itself — 
does not by any means compensate for the loss which 
has been sustained by the stalk and leaves while the 
seed is forming and ripening. 

The loss which is sustained in the ripening process is 
not all. By expending a great amount of labor the corn 
is shucked and put in the cribs. There it suffers more or 
less from the depredations of rats, mice, and other vermin. 

39 



40 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

We re-shock or stack the corn-fodder. If we hope 
or expect to induce our cattle to eat much of the 
stover, we must cut it with a powerful cutter ; next the 
corn must be ground, and carefully mixed with the cut 
corn-fodder. Then it must be steamed; and after all this 
labor and expense the stock will nose it about in their 
mangers, and leave enough of it to keep themselves well 
bedded. Now what do we accomplish by all this shuck- 
ing, cribbing, grinding, cutting of the fodder, mixing 
and steaming? Why, we have been getting up a very 
poor quality of " Ensilage " ! 

After the. stalks and leaves had become almost worth- 
less by exposure to the rains and dews while the ripen- 
ing of the ears was being accomplished, we then, by 
an expensive, laborious, and roundabout way, try with all 
the appliances of steam and machinery to get the corn 
back into the stalks so that we can induce our cattle to 
eat them. 

Why not take and preserve the plant when its nutritive 
value is the ereatest ? when all its valuable elements are 
mixed and blended in an harmonious whole exactly 
adapted for the healthy sustenance of our domestic ani- 
mals, by that Master Chemist whose handiwork as seen 
in the tiniest leaf is so far in advance of our most skilful 
combinations that we can never even hope to comprehend 
how it was formed from the original elements. 

It will be almost unnecessary to state that this system 
of preserving corn-fodder is equally well adapted to all 
the grasses, clover, Hungarian grass, millet, pea and 
bean vines, and, in fact, to all kinds of forage-crops, par- 
ticularly heavy crops of aftermath, which it is often im- 
possible to cure by drying, owing to the lateness of the 
season, the sun by the obliquity of its rays having lost 
much of its potency. 



TIAfE OF GREATEST NUTRITIVE VALUE. 41 

There is no doubt in my mind that there is more 
available nutrition in a kernel of grain when it is fully 
grown, before it has had time to harden, before a part of 
its substance has been converted into a hard, tough en- 
velope which is almost indigestible, than at any subse- 
quent time. This hard protecting envelope is a wise and 
providential provision to protect the kernel as a seed for 
future crops. Heretofore no means have been known 
to preserve grain except by ripening and drying, nor to 
cure forage crops except by drying : since Ensilage has 
been proved practical, we may now harvest all our crops 
when they contain the greatest available amount of as- 
similable nutritive elements, and preserve them unim- 
paired indefinitely. In this view of the object of ripen- 
ing grain, the conclusion is irresistible that the nutritive 
acme in corn and other grain is to be found at or before 
the blossoming period, as it is in the grasses. 

It is by no means certain, so far as the kernel of grain 
itself is concerned, that the ripened grain contains as 
large an amount of available nutritive elements as it does 
when in the milk. I have often observed that pigs when 
fed upon soft corn grow better than when fed upon old 
corn. Experiments in feeding swine at the West, re- 
ported in "The National Live Stock Journal," show this. 
In the Auofust number I find the followino- : — 

" There is no article of food for swine, available to the ordinary farm- 
er, that will fatten hogs so rapidly as green corn. Its use may be com- 
menced just as soon as the kernels are fairly filled with "' milk ; ' and 
the gain that young pigs, as well as mature hogs, will make upon this 
food is surprising. In preparing swine for exhibition at the autumn fairs, 
or for an early market for pork, nothing is equal to it." 



CHAPTER VII. 

ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN WHEN CUT IN ITS 
GREEN STATE. 

The following is taken from J. B. Brown's translation, 
and Is a letter to Mons. A. Goffart from J. A. Barras, 
Perpetual Secretary of the Central Agricultural Society 
of France, and editor of " Journal de I'Agrlculture. " 

"You do not seek to produce a fermentation." (Earlier in the experi- 
ments it was thought that fodder could only be preserved in a green state 
by fermentation. This is found to be a mistake : all fermentation is 
but the beginning of decomposition and decay, and should be avoided 
as much as possible. — J. M. B.) "You propose to maintain all its parts 
in a condition as near as possible like that of the plant at the moment it 
was cut. 

" It is important to ascertain what is the distribution of mineral and 
organic matter in the different parts of the stalk of corn. 

" When it is cut for the Silo it becomes a mixture of all parts of the 
plant in such a manner as to give to the stock those which are richest in 
nourishment as well as those that are the poorest. 

" This is one of the advantages of the method. If you give the corn- 
plant to the stock in the natural state, they will eat first the tender parts, 
and will leave the hard parts which offer the most resistance to the teeth 
and have the least flavor. 

" I have taken thirteen stalks of corn weighing altogether 37 pounds." 
(In reducing the weights and measures of the metric system to pounds, 
feet, and inches, I omit small fractions, getting it near enough for all 
practical purposes. — J. M. B.), "and have cut them up into six lots as 
follows. Each of these lots has been dried at 100 degrees (R.). The 
stalks were cut into three parts. The length of each portion was : upper 
42 



ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN. 



43 



part, 25.50 inches ; middle part, 34.60 inches; lower part, 31.50 inches. 
Average total length of each stalk without tassels being a fraction over 
nine feet. 

Table No. i. 



Leaves 

Tassel 

Ear, with stem . . 
Upi^er part of stalk 
Middle part of stalk 
Lower part of stalk . 

13 stalks . . . 



Weight in 
Green State. 



Grammes. 
4.805 
.102 
3.026 
1.270 
2.446 
5.146 



16.79s 



Weight after 
Dkying. 



Grammes. 

i-j'S 

047 

75- 
125 

341 
661 



3.241 



Water, or 
Loss per Cent. 



72.63 
56.07 

75-'4 
90.15 
86.06 
87.15 



80.76 



"Thus the water was quite unequally distributed in the stalk. They 
were more watery at the upper part, but the flowering portion was much 
less ; the grain was still milky. 

"The relations between the different parts of the plant are found to 
be as follows : — 

Table No. 2. 



Green State. 



Dry State. 



Leaves .... 
Tassel .... 
Ear, with stem . . 
Upper part of stalk 
Middle part of stalk 
Lower part of stalk 




Per cent of Weight. 
40.57 ) 

1.42 > 65.19 
23.20 ) 

3-85) 

10.52 J 34.81 
20.44 > 



100.00 100.00 



100.00 100.00 



" This shows that the stalks when green surpass in weight the remain- 
der of the organs of the plant. They contain, however, a less propor- 
tion of dry matter, and less even than the leaves which have in the fresh 
state a much less weight. 



44 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



"■ I have analyzed separately each of the six lots ; and I have obtained 
the following composition in organic substance, and ashes or mineral 
substance : — 

Table No. J. 





STALK. 




> 

< 
w 

►J 




< 


Id 

a. 


u 
_] 

D 
Q 



i-i 


2 
< 


Organic substance 

Ashes or mineral substance . . 


86.01 
10.99 


94.80 
5.20 


98.30 

1.70 


9543 

4-57 


97-31 
2.69 


98.26 

1.74 


94.26 

5-74 


. 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00 



" Thus it will be seen that the mineral substance is accumulated in 
the leaves and upper part of the stalk. 

" Here are the exact proportions of the mineral substance in the dif- 
ferent organs of corn : — 

Table No. 4. 

Leaves 77-70 

Tassel 1.22 

Ear and stem 6.79 

Upper part of stalk 3.13 

Middle part of stalk 4.87 

Lower part of stalk 6.29 

100.00 



"Thus, more than 77 per cent of mineral substance is accumulated 
in the leaves, more than 14 per cent in the stalk, and only about six per 
cent in the ear. 

" We will now ascertain the composition of the different parts of the 
plants, as appears when dried : — 



ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN. 



45 



Tabic No. 5. 



STALK. 



Nitrogenous substances . • • 
Fatty matter soluble in ether . 
Saccharine matter soluble in al- 
cohol 

Starch 

Cellulose 

Mineral substance 



Total 



Nitrogenous per cent .... 1-004 



6.28 
1.30 

6.50 

64-33 
10.60 
10.99 



6.27 
1.90 

4.70 

25-3 

56.70 

5.20 



1.004 



11.09 

2.50 

8-30 

73-51 
2.90 
1.70 



4-34 
1. 00 

17-50 

39-49 

33- 10 

4-57 



3-86 
.40 

20.60 

38.65 

33-80 

2.69 



loo.oo 100.00 1100.00 



I-77S 



.694 .617 



3-37 

•30 1 

2 1 .00 I 

35-79 , 
38.00 

r-74' 



6.47 
1.28 

11-77 

56-35 

i8-37 

5-74 



100.00 



.540 



100.00 



"The ear is found, as we would expect, much richer in nitrogenous 
substance than the other parts of the plant. The nutritive power (or 
comparative value) as it is agreed to define it, by the relation of the 
azotic substance to the sum of the fatty matter, sugar, and starch, is quite 
inferior in the stalks to that of the other organs, as the following table 

shows. . . 

"Taking the ear as unity, the proportionate nutritive power is as 

follows : — _ , , ,T >c 

Table No. 6. 



Leaves 

Tassel 

Ears 

Upper part of stalk 
Middle part of stalk 
Lower part of stalk 



Nutritive Value 

OF THE 

WHOLE Plant. 



2-54 
.09 

2.57 

•17 
.41 
.69 



6.47 



"The stalk, however, shows that it is very rich, and, above all the 
leaves, which therefore should be taken care of for the cattle 1 he fatty 
matter is concentrated in the leaves and in the ear, the saccharine mat- 
ter in the leaves and stalk, and mostly in the lower part of the stalk. 



46 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



" The following table indicates the concentration of saccharine mat- 
ter in the leaves and stalk : — 



Table No. 7. 



Leaves 

Tassel 

Ears 

Upper part of stalk 
Middle part of stalk 
Lower part of stalk 



Each Part con- 
tributes. 



n 



Per cent of dif- 
ferent PARTS 
TO THE WHOLE. 



22.36 

•59 

16.41 

5.69 

18.45 

36-50 



" Cellulose substance is, as we would expect, in large proportion in 
the stalk, and mostly toward the lower part of it. It is principally in the 
leaves and ears with stem, that the starch and the other principles which 
are neither cellulose nor nitrogenous nor mineral are found : — 

Table No. 8. 



Phosphoric acid . . . 
Sulphuric acid .... 

Chlorine 

Potash 

Soda 

Lime 

Magnesia 

Iron 

Silex 

Carbonic acid and waste 



7-17 
3.S1 

1-35 
4.41 
8.26 
12.96 
6.60 
0.51 

54-75 
0.18 



100.00 



3-97 
3-21 
1.04 
1.23 
6.78 

13-78 
5.64 
0.46 

63.76 
0.13 



10.01 
6.13 

2;73 
7.88 

10.37 
11.87 

15-03 
O.I I 

35-83 

0.03 



100.00 



33-50 
3-5S 
3-52 

27.11 

21.36 
3-46 
7.04 

Trace. 

0-34 
0.09 



9.07 
5.61 

2.15 
14.61 

12.57 
10.29 
10.52 

2.08 
2983 

3-27 



14.02 

8.65 

Trace. 

2.41 

8.39 

14-31 
8.73 
0.63 

41.37 
1.49 



7.17 
3.81 

1-35 
4.41 
8.26 
12.96 
6.60 
0.51 

54-75 
0.18 



" The above table shows that the ears are the richest in phosphoric 
acid and potash. These also contain the largest percentage of soda, 
the least of lime and silex. 



ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN. 



47 



"As to the distril)ution of each mineral element in the different parts 
of the plant, it is necessary, in order to study it thoroughly, to enter into 
a more detailed and separate examination. Phosphoric acid or phos- 
phorus plays an important part in agriculture, not because it is more 
indispensable to vegetation than several other elements, but because na- 
ture has not distributed it with so much j^rofusion in all lands or in the 
atmosphere as certain other elements that on that account are considered 
secondary. Indeed, there is not any one element in vegetation of any 
greater importance than another ; and, if any person judges otherwise, it 
is because he places himself at the point of view of an agriculturist who, 
having need to produce certain crops of a special kind, needs to accu- 
mulate such elements as enter specially into their organization. 

" Therefore, in order to obtain abundant food, in order to produce 
with rapidity domestic animals whose organs require much phosphorus, 
it is necessary to seek methods for increasing the supply of phosphates, 
more or less assimilable, that the plants may find in the bed where their 
roots develop. 

"To indicate the sources of the supply, whether in the residuum of 
factories, or of the household, or in the numerous repositories, has been 
one of the greatest services rendered in modern times to agriculture by 
chemistry and geology. 

"But there our knowledge ends : we are entirely ignorant as to how 
the phosphorus distributes itself in the vegetable, by what process it 
penetrates and circulates and accumulates in certain organs, or exactly 
what these organs are. 

" As to the relative distribution of these elements ; the following tables 
show as far as concerns maize fodder intended for green preservation 
by Ensilage. 

PHOSPHORIC ACID. 

Table No. g. 



Amount in each 

PART. 



Present in dif- 
ferent PARTS. 



Leaves 

Tassel 

Ears 

Upper stalk . . . 
Middle stalk . . . 
Lower stalk . . . 

Whole plant, dr)- 



Grammes. 
0.177 
0.007 
0.132 
0.020 
0.026 
0.050 



42.96 
1.70 

32.04 
4.S5 
6.31 

12.14 



0.41; 



100.00 



48 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



SULPHURIC ACID. 

" The role of sulphur in vegetation is nearly unknown : all that we 
know is that it is absolutely necessary. It is generally found in less pro- 
portion than phosphorus, in corn as 88 to i8o. 



Table No. lo. 



Leaves 

Tassel 

Ears 

Upper part of stalk 
Middle part of stalk 
Lower part of stalk . 

Whole plant, dry 



Quantity in each 

PART. 



0.219 



Per cent in each 

PART. 



Grammes. 




.144 


65-75 


0.005 


2.28 


0.014 


6-39 


0.009 


4.11 


0.016 


7-30 


0.031 


14.17 



CHLORINE. 

" By the conclusive experiments of Prince de Salon-Horstman we 
know that chlorine is indispensable to the regular operations of the 
different phases of vegetation ; but the most complete obscurity rests 
upon its real action. 

Table No. 11. 



Quantity in each 

PART. 



Per CENT IN dif- 
ferent PARTS. 



Leaves 

Tassel 

Ears 

Upper stalk ... 
Middle stalk . . . 
Lower stalk . . . , 

Whole plant, dry 



Grammes. 
0.047 
0.002 
0.014 
0.009 
0.006 
Traces. 



0.078 



60.26 
2.56 

17-95 

11.54 

7.69 

Traces. 



POTASH. 

" Berthier's saying, ' No plant without potash,' has become a maxim. 



AAAL}S/S 


Ajy£> COMPOSITION OF 
Table No. 12. 


CORN. 


49 




Quantity in each 

PART. 


Per 


CENT IN EACH 
PART. 


Leaves 


Grammes 

00-55 
0.006 
0.107 
0.036 
0.041 
O.ooS 








Tassel 


21.94 


Ears 


2.27 


Upper part stalk .... 
Middle part stalk .... 
Lower part stalk .... 










42.29 
1423 
16.20 


Whole plant, dry . . . 


0-253 


100.00 



SODA IN CORN. 

'• In the whole plant 0.475 grammes, of which two-thirds accumulated 
in the corn and one-sixth in the ears. 

LIME IN CORN. 

" Lime has been considered necessary to plant-growth from a very 
ancient period : more than four-fifths are found in the leaves, only two 
per cent in the ear, and the quantity increases in descending the stalk. 



MAGNESIA IN CORN. 

"The role of magnesia in vegetation has been but little studied. 
There is no doubt, however, after the experiments made in Germany, 
that its presence is indispensable to plants. Two-thirds of it is found 
in the leaves, and the remainder equally divided in the other five parts 
of the plant. 

IRON IN MAIZE. 

" Iron is evidently of great importance to the life of animals who are 
nourished by vegetation. As with sulphur, chlorine, soda, lime, and 
magnesia, the greatest accumulation is in the leaves. But it is a notice- 
able fact that it is absent from the ear, which would seem to explain the 
opinion of physicians as to the insufficiency of corn-meal for exclusive 
human food. 

" As to corn harvested green in order to be fed to cattle after Ensi- 
lage, the lack of it in the ear is equalized by its presence in other parts 
of the plant. 



50 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



SILICA. 



" It is probable that all silica enters the organs of vegetation in the 
soluble state. The quantity found is very considerable. 

Table No. 13. 



Quantity in each Per cent in dif- 
part. ferent parts. 



Leaves 

Tassel 

Ears 

Upper part of stalk 
Middle part of stalk 
Lower part of stalk 

Whole plant, dry 



Grammes. 




2.S43 


90.45 


0.026 


0.82 


0.00 1 


0.03 


0.042 


1-33 


0.084 


2.67 


0.147 


4.70 



3-143 



'■ Thus the stalk contains only about one-tenth part of the amount 
in the leaves, which contain 90 per cent of the whole plant." 

Thus it is seen by the Table No. i, that the ear with 
cob and stem forms but about one-fifth of the whole 
plant either in its green or its dry state. By Table No. 
2, that the leaves contain of solid material over 40 per 
cent of the whole plant. By Table No. 4, that of the 
mineral constituents the leaves contain over three-fourths 
of all the mineral element in the whole plant. 

But referring to Table No. 6 we find that when none 
of the valuable attributes of the plant are lost, the 
value of the ear as compared to the leaves is as 2.57 
to 2.54 ; and, as compared to the whole plant, as 2,57 to 
6.47. This shows the stock, leaves, and tassel to be 
worth nearly three times as much as the ear, taken when 
the ear is in the milk. Experiments made last season in 
the West showed that hogs fattened faster upon green 
corn (probably past the milky stage) than when fed 
upon old corn. 



AA\IL]-S/S AJVD COMPOSITIOIV OF CORX. 



51 



Table Xo. 7 shows tliat the ear and cob contain less 
than one-s,xth as much sugar as the whole plant, and 
but htt le more than two-thirds as much as the leaves 
and httle more than one-fourth as much as the stalk ' 
_ W hile the ears are richer m proportion to their weight 
in phosphoric acid, -the most expensive mineral whtch 
we require to restore to our long-cropped fields, es- 
pecially where dairying has been pursued, — still Table 
No. 9 shows that the leaves altogether contain one- 
lourth more than the ear, and that the ear contains but 
3-^ per cent of that contained in the whole plant 
rabies 10 and ri show that the ears contain but 6 per 
cent ot the sulphuric acid, and but 18 percent of the 
chlorine And Table 12 is still more instructive; for it 
shows that the leaves contain more than half as much 
potash as the ears, that the stalk contains nearly as much 
as the ear, and that the ear with the cob and stem con- 
tain but 42 per cent of the potash contained in the 
whole plant Iron - that which gives color not only to 
the beautitul and luxurant vegetation, but paints the rose 
upon the cheek of health, and gives vigor to the animal 
system, and strength and clearness to the human brain 
— is not found in the ears at all. 

Of silica we find that over ninety per cent is in the 
leaves, while but three one-hundredths of one per cent 
are in the ear. 

The lesson I wish to draw from this summary is t^vo- 
oid. F,rst,-,t is shown that the ear contains, before 
he stalk has lost by deterioration through exposure to 
the weather but a small part of the valuable constitu- 
ents of the whole plant. 

The following table, carefully compiled from the fore- 
going, gives the comparative value which the ear bears 
to the balance of tlie plant. 



52 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

Nutritive Value of the Ear, compared to the Rest of the Plant. 



In the Ear. 



In balance of the 
Plant. 



Total. 



Solid matter . . . 

Sugar 

Mineral substances 
Phosphoric acid. . 
Sulphuric acid . . 
Chlorine . . . . 

Potash 

Soda 

Lime 

Magnesia . . . . 

Iron 

Silica 



16.41 

6.79 

32.04 

6-39 

17-95 

42.29 

16.66 

2.00 

6.67 

Trace. 

0.03 



76.80 
83-59 
93- -I 
67.96 
93.61 
82.05 
57-71 
83-34 
9S.00 

93-33 
100.00 

99-97 



100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 



Now, all of these mineral constituents are necessary 
for the health and well-being of our domestic animals ; 
and when corn is cured by Ensilage they are all present 
in solution, so that when introduced into the alimentary 
canal such parts and proportions as the animal economy 
requires can be readily taken up and assimilated. Now 
comes an almost equally important fact ; and it is this, — 
a very large proportion of these mineral constituents of 
the plant passes through the animals, and is found in 
their excrements. 

When corn is preserved by Ensilage, all of these 
valuable mineral elements are in condition, when ap- 
plied in the manure to the next crop, to be immedi- 
ately taken up and assimilated by the growing plants. 
What an immense savin Pf is here ! When corn-fodder 
is cured by desiccation, many of the leaves, that part of 
the plant which is richest in mineral matter, are lost, 
being blown by the winds into the fence-corners, and 
other out-of-the-way places where their mineral wealth 
is wasted. The stalks are not eaten and digested by the 



ajvalvsis and composition of corn. 53 

animals, are a nuisance in the manure-pile, and are at 

least two years in becoming sufficiently decomposed in 

the field, so that their mineral fertilizine material is in 
condition for the g-rowing- plant to a\ail itself of. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

EXPLANATIONS WHY ENSILAGE MUST KEEP. 

Many farmers and others came to see the process of 
fining the Silo with the green corn-fodder ; nearly all 
declared that it would spoil, mould, heat, and rot. Sev- 
eral said, " I guess you will have a fine lot of manure 
before winter." I replied, " Gentlemen, it will not spoil 
at all ; it will not even heat : it will come out just as 
good feeding stuff as it is now, and I think better." 

None of them believed a word I said, it was plain to 
be seen. They were certain that this last of my " new- 
fangled notions " would prove a complete failure, and 
they would have the laugh on me this time. Some 
endeavored to cheer me up by saying that " even if it 
did not work well for the purpose I intended, the Silos 
would be a capital place to store fruit in, so that it won't 
be all loss, any way." 

This kind of talk had been going on for several days, 
and was, I confess, getting to be rather monotonous. 
One day a number of well-meaning but incredulous 
neighboring farmers were present. They knew nothing 
of agricultural chemistry, or the philosophy of its pres- 
ervation ; but I made up my mind 1 would convince them 
that the green corn-fodder would keep instead of rotting : 
therefore I said, " You think it will heat and spoil, do 

54 



EXPLANATIOXS Jl'HV EXSILACE MUST KEEP. ^^^ 

you?" — " Ves, I am afraid it uill," said they each and 
all." — " Now, I tell you it won't do any such thing." 
"Why won't it? what makes you think so?" they asked. 
I knew that I might quote M. Goffart, and all the agri- 
cultural scientists in the world to them till doomsday, 
and it would have no impression on their minds, so I 
took homely illustrations. Said I, "Why doesn't a pile 
of horse-manure heat when it is left in the stable all 
winter under the feet of the horses, until it eets three or 
four feet deep ? Why doesn't sheep-manure heat when 
it is left all winter in the sheep-folds, and becomes a foot 
and a half to two feet deep? " — " Because it is trod doiun 
so solid, the air can't get into it." — "Just so! that is the 
reason this corn-fodder won't heat and spoil : it is 'trod 
down' so solid that the air cannot get into it," I rejoined. 
This was rather a stao-o-erer. " Is there any thinof which 
is quicker to heat when it has a chance than horse or 
sheep manure?" I asked. " No-o-o," they reluctantly 
admitted. " Now see here," said I : " haven't you all 
noticed in the spring, when you were getting out ^ our 
hog-manure, that you often came across, in the bottom 
of the yards, buried under the manure, potato-vines and 
weeds which had been thrown in to the hoes the fall 
before, that were just as green and fresh as when they 
were first pulled out of the ground?"* They all replied, 
" Yes, we have." 

BlLLERICA, April 21, iSSo. 

* My Good Doctor, — According to request I send you an account of the find- 
ing of a fresh and perfectly preserved lily-pad, six or seven feet below the surface 
of one of our Concord-river meadows. It was in perfect shape, and as green and 
healthy-looking as in its prime of life. Having a love for geological researches, and 
thinking these meadows had some time been deposited by the river, I concluded to 
make an examination. At the top I found a foot in depth of black meadow soil ; 
then, next below, another foot in depth of diatomacious deposit of microscopic shells, 
composed entirely of pure silex, so small that they make a good silver-polish. I then 
came to a pure vegetable deposit, consisting of sticks and leaves, four feet deep. 
At the bottom of this I found green and well-preserved lily-pads, clam-shells, char- 



56 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

" Well, " said I, " my Ensilage will keep just the same 
way. I trample it down solid as it is put in the Silos, 
cover it with rye-straw, then floor it over with plank, and 
put about a foot in depth of cobble-stones or bowlders 
which will press it down solid as a cider-cheese. No air 
can then get in. The air and gases already in will be 
continually being forced out by the weight. Therefore 
it cannot heat any more than the horse and sheep 
manure can when it is trodden down compactly." They 
were silenced. 

Pretty soon one old farmer who has got a great deal 
of good, hard, sound sense in his head, slowly looked 
round, and still more deliberately said, " By Horn, I've 
changed my mind ! I believe it will keep. But you will 
have to feed it all out before the weather begins to get 
warm in the spring, won't you ? " — " No," I replied : " the 
outside temperature has nothing to do with its keeping. 
Won't a pile of horse or sheep manure ' heat ' and ' burn ' 
if it lies up loose so that the air can get at it in the win- 
ter, be it ever so cold, just as badly as in the hottest days 
of summer? " 

" Well, there ain't much difference," said he. " Now, it 
is just the same with Ensilage," I replied. " If it does 
not ' heat ' in the winter, it will not in the summer. It 
is the presence of air, or rather of the oxygen in the air, 
which causes manure or any damp mass of organic mat- 
ter to ferment or decay." — " Well," said he, as he started 
for his team, " as I said afore, I believe it will come out 
all right." The rest of them said nothing ; and whether 
all of them have found out to this time that it does keep, 

coal, and sticks with marks of beaver-teeth, all in a fine state of preservation. These 

deposits must have been preserved here, perfectly excluded from light and air, for at 

least a thousand years. 

Very respectfully, 

Daniel Parker, M.D. 



EXPLANATIONS WHY ENSILAGE MUST KEEP. 57 

or not, I am unable to say. One thing is certain : they 
were silenced for once. 

Now, my explanation why it keeps, and why it is some- 
what sour, is this : — 

When it is cut ever so fine, and trodden down ever so 
vigorously, still there is some air left in the little spaces 
between the pieces of the stalks ; and the dried leaves, if 
there are any, arc full of air which has taken the place of 
the sap which has evaporated. Large stalks, after being 
cut four-tenths of an inch long, are finer than small ones; 
which is one reason among several why the corn which 
grows the largest is the best for Ensilage. The oxygen 
in this amount of air — be it greater or smaller — im- 
mediately starts a fermentation. Fermentation, mould, 
decay, rot, and fire are all identical. The only difierence 
is in the degree of speed with which the combustion 
goes on. They all alike depend upon the presence of 
oxygen, and cease when this active agent of destruction 
is removed. The process of combustion, whether slow 
or rapid, consumes oxygen, and gives out carbonic acid 
gas. 

This fermentation consumes the small amount of oxy- 
gen which is contained in the mass of Ensilage, and 
liberates an amount of carbonic acid gas which takes the 
place of the oxygen. The fermentation in its incipient 
stage is arrested for want of oxygen. None can get in 
from the top ; for the compression which is constantly 
eoinof on is all the time forcino- the erases out, and where 
there is ever so slight a flow out, none can possibly flow 
in. Then, as the carbonic acid gas is heavier than the 
atmosphere, the sides and bottom of the Silo being tight, 
and as the carbonic acid gas cannot leak out, the air 
cannot get down into the space occupied by the carbonic 
acid gas, any more than air can get down into a jug filled 



58 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

with water or other heavy Hquid until the water or other 
hquid is poured or leaks out. The Ensilage is thus 
immersed in a bath of carbonic acid gas. Fermentation 
under such circumstances is an impossibility. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ENSILAGE ADAPTED TO WARM AS WELL AS COLD CLIMATES. 

Right here let me reply to an opinion which I saw 
expressed in a Southern paper which was commenting 
upon the success which had attended the " Winning- 
Farm " Ensilage experiment: "We understand Dr. Bai- 
ley intends to try the experiment at ' Virginia Stock 
Farm.' We shall await the result of his trial with a 
great deal of interest, and hope he will succeed equally 
well ; but we fear that while this system of preserving 
green forage-crops will doubtless prove of incalculable 
benefit to the North, we do not think it will answer in 
as warm a climate as Virginia." 

If any of my fellow farmers in Virginia or other South- 
ern States have the same fear, let me call their attention 
to the fact that the climate of that part of France where 
M. Goffart has been so successful in preserving fodder 
by Ensilage is nearly if not quite as warm as Virginia, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, or Missouri ; and also to the rea- 
sons given in the preceding chapter. I believe the 
system is equally applicable wherever the winter's cold 
or the droughts of summer necessitate the preservation 
of forage for the food of domestic animals. 

The sourness or acidity which is, I believe, always 
present in a greater or less degree, especially if the 

59 



60 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

corn is allowed to stand in the field until the ear is fully 
formed, is far from being an injury : on the contrary, 
it is probably an advantage. Nearly if not all of our 
domestic animals gain faster when their food is allowed 
to stand and ferment until more or less sour before 
feeding-. 

This has been demonstrated at the Massachusetts 
Agricultural College. There all food is chopped and 
steamed. By actual experiments it was noticed that the 
animal gained faster, and had a better appetite, when the 
steamed food was allowed to stand twenty-four hours, at 
least, to ferment until there was a perceptible degree of 
sourness, than when fed upon the same food before any 
such change had taken place. 

In regard to swine, every farmer knows that they gain 
faster upon sour, not putrid food, than upon sweet. 

The other day a neighbor of mine, a most excellent 
farmer, called to see Ensilage. He winters about 60 
head of cattle. He informed me that several years ago 
he began to cut his hay and other fodder, and mix his 
grain with the cut fodder, wetting it thoroughly with 
boiling water. He found a very considerable gain in so 
doing. About three years ago he began to mix and wet 
with boiling water a day's feed for his stock, and let it 
stand twenty-four hours before feeding, during which 
time it ferments and becomes quite sour. He informed 
me that his stock ate it better for the fermentation, and 
that there is a saving of at least 50 per cent in the 
amount of hay they required, from the amount they 
required if fed dry and uncut. His process, doubtless, 
has somewhat the same effect in facilitatino- the dio-es- 
tion and assimilation of the starch and other nutritive 
elements in the fodder as is produced by Ensilaging. 

Among the many minor advantages to be gained by 



ENSILAGE ADAPTED TO WARM CLIMATES. 6 1 

adopting the system of Ensilage is the lessening of the 
danger from fire. The tramp with his pipe, or the in- 
cendiary with his match, would have hard work to raise 
much of a blaze in a Silo with nothing but Ensilao-e for 
fuel. 

Another is, the crop can be all planted at one time. 
Large lands can be ploughed and harrowed, long rows 
planted admitting the use of agricultural implements to 
greater advantage, and much less time consumed in 
turning corners. The work can be not only accom- 
plished in less time, but easier and better. 

The dairyman and stock-raiser can systemize their 
work. They will have all winter to get out their manure, 
which they can spread broadcast upon the winter rye. 
They will have no spring's work except to "slick up," 
repair fences, &c., see to the kitchen and fruit garden. 
They can now find time to trim their orchards, to graft 
over trees w^hich bear undesirable fruit, and to put out 
that " little patch of strawberries," which they have been 
promising the good wife so long, but which they never 
before, in the hurry of their spring's work, could get time 
to attend to. 

Then, when all the little jobs that ought to be attended 
to in the spring are done up, the potatoes planted, and 
the pleasant days of May have come, the broad fields of 
waving rye are beginning to show their shining heads, 
and the time for work is here. 

If the farmer I am writing about now, is a worker, and 
economical, — and he is both, — he has been chang-ino- 
work with his neighbors, helping them get thei7' spring's 
work done ; and now they come with their cradles, and in 
three days the 20 acres of rye are all safely housed. Or, 
if he has a reaper, — which he has not, — it can be done 
in one day. No waiting for fair weather : a cloudy day 



62 • THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

is just as good as any ; even if it rains a little, no need 
for the work to stop. 'Tis but the work of a couple of 
hours to replace the plank covering, throw on the bowl- 
ders, and the rye* Ensilage is saved. 

Now comes ploughing-in the rye stubble. Three or 
four teams make quick work of the 20-acre field. I use 
the Cassidy sulky plough. It saves not only the labor of 
holding the plough, but does the work better. Land so 
hard that it cannot be ploughed with a common plough is 
turned over without difficulty. It is much easier for the 
team. You can turn corners quicker, and plough closer 
to fences. At " Virg^inia Stock Farm" we averag^ed with 
each pair of horses 20 acres per week. For ploughing 
under weeds or green crops, nothing is equal to it. It 
is smoothed and fined in one day by a boy and a pair of 
horses with the Thomas smoothing-harrow. In four 
days the farmer himself can plant it in drills 3^ feet 
apart, using one bushel of seed to the acre, with one 
horse and an Albany planter. Or if he has a Farm- 
er's Favorite grain-drill, with a pair of horses, he can 
plant it in less than two days, at the same time distrib- 
uting a little fertilizer in the drill. (This will pay, no 
matter how rich your land is.) 

Every farmer ought to have a Farmer's Favorite 
grain-drill, if he raises 20 acres of Ensilage. 

With it he can drill in his rye after his corn is cut, 
which is better than broadcasting, can save ten bushels 
of seed, and will have a better crop. 

It has two sets of "feed-cups," which make it the best 
combined grain-drill and corn-planter in the world. 

If he thinks he cannot afford the Farmer's Favorite 
grain-drill, he must have an Albany seed-sower and corn- 
planter. 

After his corn is planted, he has nothing to do but 



ENSILAGE ADAPTED TO WARM CLIMATES. 63 

look after his stock, attend to the garden, and hve the 
hfe an American farmer ought to hve. A boy and a 
pair of horses with the Thomas smoothing-harrovv one 
day in a week will keep the corn free from weeds, 
the soil completely pulverized, inducing absorption and 
preventing evaporation, until the corn is a foot high. 
Then, when it is about waist high, he will want one 
of Timothy B. Hussey's Centennial improved horse- 
hoes. With it he can hoe five to seven acres a day 
better than it can possibly be done by hand, killing and 
burying up every weed, and throwing just earth enough 
around the stalks to strengthen them and prevent the 
wind from breaking them over. Corn is growing very 
rapidly now, and is very tender, and I think is better for 
a little hilling. By the way, let me say here that I have 
a quantity of seed-corn expressly raised for me for 
Ensilage. I tested it last year on a small scale. I had 
sino-le stalks which before the tassel was in sio-ht weighed 
nine pounds ; others when fully grown with the grain in 
the milk weighed over 15 pounds each. I can safely 
guarantee this corn if planted upon good corn land, in 
good condition well manured, with proper cultivation to 
produce from 40 to 75 tons to the acre of green fodder 
just right for Ensilage. The stalk is extremely sweet 
and succulent ; some of them beine over six inches in 
circumference and 14 feet high, with an immense amount 
of long, broad leaves, some of which measured four feet 
ten inches in length, and 6l inches in width. It will not 
require more than half a bushel to plant an acre (of other 
kinds one bushel is needed) ; so that, although it is some- 
what high-priced by the pound or bushel, it does not cost 
so very much more by the acre. It should be planted in 
drills four feet apart, with the stalks six to eight inches 
apart in the rows. Be sure and not get it too thick, 



64 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

for it throws out a great number of suckers, and to yield 
a large crop must have room and air.. I will send sam- 
ple bags of this Mammoth Ensilage corn by mail, 
containing one pound, on receipt of 60 cents ; three 
pounds, $1.50 ; by express or freight, half a peck, $1.25 ; 
one peck, $2.00; half a bushel, $3.00; one bushel, 
^5.00; two bushels or more, $4.00 per bushel. No 
charge for bags. 

It is a waste of time to plant common sweet corn. 
None of it is as sweet as this Ensilage corn, nor as 
nutritious, and it will not yield one-third as much ; be- 
sides it is much easier to cut up a ton of large stalks than 
a ton of small ones. It is just as easy to cut with the cut- 
ter, easier to feed into the cutter, and, when cut, the disks 
split into small pieces, so that the Ensilage is as fine as 
if the stalks were small, and packs closer in the Silo. 
There is every advantage in growing the Mammoth 
Ensilage corn. 

Now I want to say something about fodder-cutters. 
We must have a self-feeding machine, which will cut or 
shred (which would be better, as it would pack closer, 
thereby excluding the air more completely) at least sixty 
tons per day without any labor on the part of the men 
tending it, except that required to throw the fodder in 
armfuls upon the apron of the machine. 

I think I have found it in Baldwin's Improved Ameri- 
can fodder-cutter. I shall try it this spring when I 
Ensilage my rye, and, if satisfactory upon trial, will in a 
second edition (if one is called for) tell you all about 
it. One thing I will say now: a cutter which has but one 
feed-roller will not answer. There must be two rollers, 
the top one fluted, the bottom roller smooth, between 
which the fodder must pass. The top roller must be 
geared to rise and fall, to adjust itself so that a large or 



ENSILAGE ADAPTED TO WARM CLIMATES. 65 

small amount of fodder will be i<c^ widi the same speed 
and re<T;-Lilarity. 

1 Baldwin's lodder-cutter I believe to be the best ciit- 
tiiLg machine for Ensilag-ing- purposes on the market. 

I think tearinor or shreddinQf the stalks would be much 
better than cutting-. The fodder shredded must pack 
closer, thereby giving less room for air. I have invented, 
and am perfecting, a machine which will cut ami shred 
fodder of all kinds, with the expenditure of onedialf the 
power all other machines I have seen require to do the 
same work. I utilize a principle never before made use 
of in fodder-cutters. I hope to have it completed, and 
be able to furnish it in season for the Ensilaeine of 
the corn. To successfully preserve green fodder, three 
things are essential : first, that the fodder shall be in as 
fine a condition as possible so as to compact ; second, 
that the Silos shall be air and water tiofht on the sides 
and bottom ; third, that sufficient weight shall be placed 
upon it in order to press out all or nearly all of the air. 
If the air can be all forced out, there will be no fermen- 
tation, and the Ensilage will keep indefinitely in the 
same condition as when put into the Silo. In that case, 
in order to receive the full benefit of the system of En- 
silage, it will be necessary to pile up the Ensilage upon 
the stable fioor twelve to twenty-four hours, until active 
fermentation takes place, before feeding, that the bene- 
fits of fermentation may be secured as explained in the 
following chapter. 



CHAPTER X. 



A NEW DISCOVERY. 



During my investigations and experiments it occurred 
to me that it would be a great improvement to mix the 
concentrated nitrogenous grain, such as the refuse from 
flour-mills, wheat, rye, or buckwheat bran, shorts or mid- 
dlinors, the refuse grains and feedinof-stuff from brewer- 
ies, or prepared animal food from fish and meat scraps, 
such as Bowker's animal meal, fish-scrap prepared by 
Goodale's process or otherwise, with the green corn-stalks 
or other forage crops at the time of Ensilaging. 

For while the Ensilaging of green corn, rye, and other 
succulent forage-crops is an immense advance over the 
old system of curing forage-crops by desiccation, and 
while such Ensilage is a most excellent and succulent 
food for all domestic animals, still it is by no means a 
perfect food, being deficient in albuminoids: therefore it 
is necessary to add to the ration of Ensilage a certain 
amount of concentrated nitrogenous food in the form, ot 
grain, or animal-scrap-meal, or other concentrated cattle 
foods containing albuminoids to excess. 

Animals fed exclusively upon Ensilaged corn will 
become fat, dull, heavy, and lymphatic, the nervous and 
muscular systems not receiving that degree of nutrition 
which they require for their full development. 



• A A'EIV DISCOVERY. 67 

Starch, the chief nutritive element in corn and other 
carbonaceous plants, is almost identical in its chemical 
constituents with sugar. But it is difficult to digest by- 
reason of the toughness of the envelope which encloses 
the starch-cell. 

The gastric juice of the stomach being able to dissolve 
but a part of them, the remainder passes from the ani- 
mal in its excrement, and is lost. 

The softening and fermentive process through which 
the Ensilage passes in the Silo bursts the starch-cells, 
and converts the starch into sugar, as is evinced by the 
strong odor of alcohol which is emitted when the Ensi- 
lage is exposed to the action of the oxygen in the 
atmosphere. The digestion of the Ensilage is thus ren- 
dered easier, and its assimilation more perfect. 

By mixing the concentrated nitrogenous food with the 
comminuted forao-e at the time of Ensilao-ine, the labor 
of feeding the concentrated nitroo^enous food is reduced 
to a minimum. 

The nitrogenous food is also subjected to the same 
softening and fermentive process. The carbo-hydrates in 
it (composed largely of starch) are liberated, and fitted 
for easy digestion and assimilation. The albuminoids 
(which contain the nitrogen) are also rendered more 
digestible and assimilable by this process of maceration 
and fermentation, which has the same effect substan- 
tially upon them as that which is produced by the pro- 
cess of steaming- or cooking. 

The concentrated food should be added in such 
amounts that the mixture shall contain the proper com- 
parative amounts of albuminoids and carbo-hydrates 
which are best adapted to the sustenance and growth of 
our domestic animals. An addition of about ten per 
cent of wheat-bran to the corn-fodder would make the 



68 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

mixture about equal to the best clover hay, and would 
be admirably adapted for milch-cows, young and growing 
cattle, and colts. It is also excellent for breeding-ewes, 
and for swine nothing could be better. 

The great importance of this new discovery, both in the 
saving of labor and increasing the nutritive value of the 
concentrated food over that which it has when fed in a 
dry and raw state, and the fear that some avaricious per- 
son might take out letters-patent upon the process, and 
seek to prevent the full benefits of this great and 
improved system of Ensilage from being adopted, by 
exorbitant claims for royalty, has induced me to make 
application for a patent upon the process of mixing con- 
centrated nitrogenous cattle-foods with the comminut- 
ed green corn, rye, or other succulent forage at the time 
of Ensilaging the same, in such proportions as shall give 
to the mixture the proper amounts of albuminoids and 
carbo-hydrates which are best adapted to the growth and 
subsistence of our domestic animals. Besides the labor 
saved in feeding (at least $1.50 for each ton of grain), 
and the increased value by facilitating digestion (fully ten 
per cent) , is the certainty that each animal will get its 
ration, and no more. No heedless stable-boy will empty 
two measures of grain into one cow's manger, and give 
none to the next, thereby depriving one of the necessary 
food, and impairing the digestion of the other by an 
overfeed. 



CHAPTER XL 

FOOD INGREDIENTS. CHEMICAL TERMS EXPLAINED. 

Water. — If a piece of wood or wisp of hay be dried some time in 
a hot oven, more or less water will be driven off. The water in feeding- 
stuffs varies from 80 to 90 pounds in every 100 pounds of young grass 
or fodder-corn, to only 8 or 10 pounds to the 100 in dry straw or hay. 

Organic Substance. — If the dried wood or hay be burned, most -of 
it will pass off as gas, vapor, or smoke. The part thus burned away is 
the organic substance. The residue : — 

The Ash contains the mineral matters, that is, the potash, lime, phos- 
phoric acid, &c., of the plant. The most important part for our present 
purpose is the organic, the combustible matter. This consists of three 
kinds of ingredients, albuminoids, carbo-hydrates, and fats. The main 
point in economical feeding is to secure the right proportions of these 
at the lowest cost. 

Albuminoids — also called protein compounds, proteids, and flesh- 
formers — contain carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. Thus they 
differ from the carbo-hydrates and fats, which contain no nitrogen. 
The name albuminoids comes from albumen, which we know very well 
as the whites of eggs, and it is found in milk. The fibrin of bone and 
muscle (lean meat) and the casein (curd) of milk are also albuminoids. 
Indeed, the solid part of blood, nerves, lean meat, gristle, skin, &c., con- 
sist chiefly of albuminoids. In plants they are equally important ; plant 
albumen occurs in nearly all vegetable juices, especially in potatoes and 
wheat, casein or legumin in beans and peas, and fibrin in the gluten of 
wheat, the basis of what farmer-boys call "wheat gum." Clover, bran, 
beans, peas, oil-cake, and flesh and meat-scrap are rich in albuminoids. 

Carbo-hydrates consist of carbon and hydrogen. The most impor- 
tant are starch, sugar, and cellulose (woody fibre). They make up a 

69 



70 



THE BOOK OF EXSILAGE. 



larger part of the solids of plants, but only a little of them is stored in 
the animal body. Potatoes, wheat, poor hay, straw, and cornstalks con- 
sist largely of carbo-hydrates. 

Fats have more carbon than carbo-hydrates, and like them have no 
nitrogen. Fat meat, tallow, lard, fish-oil, the fat (butter) of milk, and 
linseed oil are familiar examples of fats. Indian corn, oil-cake, cotton- 
seed and linseed, are rich in fatty matters." [The last three are also 
rich in albuminoids.] — From American Agriailttirisf, January, i8jg. 



CHAPTER XII. 



CAPACITY OF SILOS. 



A CUBIC foot of Ensilage weighs from 40 to 50 pounds ; 
a daily ration for a cow is 50 to 60 pounds : therefore it 
is only necessary to allow one-and-one-half cubic feet for 
each cow daily, to tell how large a Silo is wanted. First 
let the stock-raiser or dairyman decide how many head 
of stock he wants to keep : the number he has kept will 
be no criterion. 

" Winning Farm" three years ago could keep but six 
head of cows and one horse : now 35 cattle. 5 horses, 
and 125 sheep are kept, and there is every probability 
of doublinof the number next season. One cubic foot 
will keep a sheep a week in good condition. According 
to the rule laid down above, it will require 547.I cubic 
feet of Ensilage to keep one cow one year. To keep 
two cows, a Silo is refjuired ten feet wide, ten feet long, 
and ten feet deep. This would hold about twenty-five 
tons, and could be grown upon one-half acre of rich, 
warm land. For four cows it should be built twice as 
long. It will only be necessary to have your Silos con- 
tain 550 cubic feet for each cow's subsistence for twelve 
months. If the cows are pastured six months of the 
year, then 275 cubic feet of Ensilage will be sufficient 
for each cow. It is ver)- important that the sides should 
be perpendicular, and smoothly plastered with a cement- 
plaster, so that the Ensilage will settle evenh', and in 



72 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



order that the plank covering may have nothing to catch 
upon as it settles under the heavy weights placed upon it. 

Small Silos, capable of holding enough Ensilage for 
ten to twenty cows, can be constructed by digging and 
walling up, as for a cellar, when stone is plenty. Mix 
one part cement with two parts sand, and make a con- 
crete floor about one inch thick. Put a cheap battened 
roof over it to keep the rain and snow out, and you 
have just as good a Silo as any. One 12 feet wide, 30 
feet long, and 12 feet deep, would not cost, besides the 
labor, over fifty dollars, and would hold enough Ensi- 
lage to winter 12 to 15 cows, or about 175,000 pounds, 
or 872 tons. (See cut on opposite page.) This can 
easily be produced upon two acres of suitable land prop- 
erly prepared. 

Two feet in depth daily is fast enough to fill the Silo. 
This rate is better than to fill faster ; as the Ensilage will 
settle better, and there will be less space lost by settling 
at the top of the Silos. If an accident to cutter or 
power, or if any untoward incident, stops the filling of 
the Silo for one, two, or even three days when it is partly 
full, no injury will be done to the Ensilage, providing 
one or two men (according to size of Silo) are kept 
constantly trampling upon it, so as to keep the Ensilage 
compact. If it begins to dry or heat on top, take a 
garden watering-pot and sprinkle over it to supply the 
loss from evaporation. 

Two small Silos are better than one large one of the 
capacity of both ; for, with two, one will be empty in 
the summer, ready to receive rye, clover, or other green 
forage, which it will be as advantageous to preserve by 
Ensilage as it is the green corn in the fall. 

After the Ensilage is compacted so that it ceases 
to settle, it is ready to feed out. This takes about a 



CAPACirV OF SILOS. 



Vc 



month. At any time after it is compacted, the weights 
can be removed, the plank taken up, the straw raked 
off, and more green fodder of any kind put on top of 
that which is in the Silo, thereby utilizing all the space. 
If more fodder be raised than the Silo will hold, the 
walls can be carried up about two feet with plank, and 
filled so that when setded the Ensilage will fill the Silo 
to the top of the masonr}- walls. 




^M^y-^imm^im^MMm^m^m^mmB^ 



Sectional view of Silo, t2 feet wide, 12 feet high, and 24 or 30 feet long; capacity, 80 to loo tons of Ensilage, 
sufficient to winter fifteen to twenty cows ; cost, exclusive of labor, about $40, where stone are plenty. 

I, I, three-inch by four-inch scantling. 

II, II, i^-inch by 12-inch plank, between which and the rough wall a concrete or grout is poured. 

III, 111, dotted line showing the face of the concrete pointing and plastering. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ENSILAGE IN THE GREAT DAIRY DISTRICTS. 

The system of Ensilage is especially adapted to the 
great dairy districts of the West. Improved Ensilage 
will enable the dairyman to make as good an article of 
butter in the winter as in summer. By it the number of 
cows can be tripled. It is cheaper to soil cows during 
the summer than to pasture them where land is valuable, 
particularly in the vicinity of cities. Fifty cents per 
week is the average price paid in my section for pastur- 
ing a cow ; for less than this, a cow can be kept upon 
Ensilage, and in better condition than the average pas- 
ture wdll keep her : besides, by this system, all the 
manure can be saved, which will abundantly pay for all 
the extra labor of caring for the stock, if the labor is 
greater than in pasturing, which I much doubt. 

The system of Ensilage — which I hope to see rapid- 
ly adopted (of the hundreds of farmers who have visited 
" Winniiig Farm'' nearly all have assured me that they 
shall build Silos this season) — will cause our exports of 
beef and mutton to be immensely increased, while the 
exports of dairy products will be doubled and tripled. 

They are noiv rapidly increasing, as is shown by the 
following table of receipts and exports of butter alone, 
at New York, for the years 1874 to 1879 : — 



ENSILAGE IN THE GREAT DAIRY DISTRICTS. 



75 



Receipts. 



Exports. 



1874 
1875 
1S76 
1S77 
1S78 
1S79 



Packages. 
994.430 
1,080.899 
1.292,577 
1,269,759 
I.277.S63 
1,581,825 



Pounds. 
4,695,11 1 
4,216,548 
10,045,434 
19,686,447 
23,029,732 
36,153.444 



The exports of cheese are fully as important, and of 
so fine a quality that the English and European dairy 
farmers are in despair as to the future. 

By Ensilage, wool can be produced so cheaply and in 
such quantities as to preclude the possibility of importation. 

Ensilage being so rich in carbo-hydrates, it is espe- 
cially adapted to the growth of wool. If, in connection 
with Ensilage, we would feed the cotton-seed raised in 
the South (no better food can be imagined than En- 
silage and cotton-seed meal) , we could not only stop the 
importation of wool, but have wool as well as choice 
mutton in almost unlimited quantities to export (see 
chapter on sheep for weights of lambs) : their mothers 
being fed upon Ensilage, numberless flocks could be 
kept. The old pastures, which have become so worth- 
less by being stocked with cows so long, would, if pas- 
tured with sheep, speedily improve, and soon be restored 
to their original fertility. 

In the rich and fertile West, Ensilage of corn can be 
raised and stored in Silos for one dollar per ton : as two 
tons are equal to one ton of the best hay, this places the 
comparative \'alue of hay at two dollars per ton ; this is less 
than hay can be cured for. Two acres of good meadow 
are required to keep one cow ; while by the system of 
Ensilage — improved by my process — cigjit cows may 
be kept in high condition upon the same land. 



76 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

No country is so well adapted by reason of both soil 
and climate as our own for the growth of the corn-plant. 
Now that we know how to utilize this greatest o-ift of 
Nature, and save all its valuable constituents instead of a 
part only, who is able to correctly estimate the blessings 
which will follow when this knowledge is universally 
diffused and profited by ? 



THE CORN-SONG. 

BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. 



Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard ! heap high the golden corn ! 

No richer gift has Autumn poured from out her lavish horn. 

Let other lands exulting glean the apple from the pine, 

The orange from its glossy green, the cluster from the vine. 

We better love the hardy gift our rugged vales bestow, 

To cheer us when the storm shall drift our harvest-fields with snow. 

Through vales of grass and meads of flowers, ourploughs their furrows made, 

While on the hills the sun and showers of changeful April played. 

We dropped the seed o'er hill and plain, beneath the sun of May, 

And frightened from our sprouting grain the robber crows away. 

All through the long bright days of June its leaves grew green and fair, 

And waved in hot midsummer's noon its soft and yellow hair. 

And now with autumn's moonlit eves, its harvest-time has come ; 

We pluck away the frosted leaves, and bear the treasure home. 

There, richer than the fabled gift Apollo showered of old, 

Fair hands the broken grain shall sift, and knead its meal of gold. 

Let vapid idlers loll in silk around their costly board : 

Give us the bowl of samp and milk, by homespun beauty poured ! 

Where'er the wide old kitchen-hearth sends up its smoky curls. 

Who will not thank the kindly earth, and bless our farmer-girls ! 

Then shame on all the proud and vain, whose folly laughs to scorn 

The blessing of our hardy grain, our wealth of golden corn ! 

Let earth withhold her goodly root, let mildew blight the rye, 

Give to the worm the orchard's fruit, — the wheat-field to the fly ; 

But let the good old crop adorn the hills our fathers trod : 

Still let us, for his golden corn, send up our thanks to God ! 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HISTORY OF MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN. 
By E. Lewis Sturtevant, M. D. 

The corn-plant is only known as a cultivated plant. 
When Columbus first reached the shores of the West 
Indies in 1492, he found mahiz grown and used by the 
Indians, and also in Yucatan upon its discovery in 1502. 
While Cabeca de Vaca was toiling his intermittent way 
from Florida to the Pacific coast in 1528 to 1536, he 
found maize grown in large fields, and stored in cribs, by 
the natives of those regions. Cortez had previously 
found maize in Mexico, at the period of the invasion, 
and at Cempoalla, in 15 19, had eaten maize made into 
bread-cakes, and on the march to Mexico passed amidst 
flourishing fields of maize. When De Soto invaded 
Florida in 1539, viaes occurred everywhere in large 
fields ; and the same year Marco de Vica found maize 
growing in New Mexico in fields. In 1540 Vasquez 
de Coronado mentions fields of maize in the valley of 
San Miguel and also in store at Cibola ; and it is also 
mentioned in Castanedo's Relations for the same date. 
Alarcon, in 1*540, found it growing in his journey up the 
Colorado River, and Antonio de Espips in 1583 found 
it under cultivation by the Concho Indians of this region. 

77 



78 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

When Cartier visited Hochelaga, now Montreal, in 1535, 
that town was situated in the midst of extensive corn- 
fields. In 1586 Heriot refers to maize cultivated in 
Virginia, and called by the natives '' pagatom^ ; " and John 
Smith in 1606 describes the Indian method of culture 
then. Champlain in 1605 found it growing in fields all 
along the New-England coast, and describes the man- 
ner of its culture. Our Puritan fathers found it in 
store upon their first expedition of discovery, and speak 
of the deserted corn-fields, for the time was winter. The 
Five Nations, in 1603, made corn-planting their business 
before the French arrived in Canada. The Iroquois 
raised it in such large quantities that in the invasion 
into the country of the Senecas, in 1687, some 1,200,000 
bushels were destroyed. The Indians of Illinois culti- 
vated corn when the country was first described by Mar- 
quette in 1673, by Allouez in 1676, and Membre in 
1679. In Louisiana they had even invented a hoe for 
its culture. 

This list might be indefinitely extended ; for so uni- 
versal was the use of maize by the aborigines, that its 
mention is to be found in nearly all the early chroniclers, 
and it seems never to have been grown as a luxury 
simply, but rather as a source of supply, and as a staple 
food. In the southern country, it was so largely grown 
that many tribes may be considered as agriculturists, 
rather than as hunters ; in the northern countries it 
shared with the products of the chase the claims of a 
sustenance. Its merits, too, were quickly recognized 
by Europeans, and it soon found introduction to Europe, 
and a wide distribution. It had a strong agency in the 
settlement of this country, as it afforded relief from star- 
vation to the " Conquisitors " in the South, and to plain 
Miles Standish and his contemporaries in the North. 



HISTORY OF MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN. 79 

The Indian made his conquest the more easy by feeding 
his invaders from the produce of his corn-field, and the 
parched grain supported him again in his defence. 
Among the more imaginative Indians of the South, 
maize became an object of worship, and a means of 
conferring honor : it formed portions for gifts, and in 
one instance was poured upon the ground for the 
tramphng of the horses, as an earnest of welcome to 
the Spaniard. Everywhere the grain supplied food, in 
many places was parted into a drink, and the leaves and 
stalks were crushed to secure the juice to be boiled into 
a sirup or sugar, and the stalks were used to form bags 
and other material of wigwam use. It is passing strange 
that the corn-plant does not appear upon the coat of 
arms of any of the States whose early necessities it 
relieved. 

In all the references to corn that we find for North 
America, we find no reference to the amount of crop 
harvested from a given area ; and this seems at first sur- 
prising. We read of manuring and fallowing, of the 
preparation of the ground, of the planting, of the cul- 
ture, and the storing of the crop. We have some few 
accounts of varieties, and frequent mention of the uses 
and modes of preparation. In 1608 the settlers of 
Jamestown were taught the manner of growing it by 
the Indians; and in 1621 Squanto, the good-natured 
Indian friend of the Pilorims, taught them ; and, strange- 
ly enough, until quite recently there has been but little 
change from the Indian methods; and throughout New 
Enorland freneralh' the cultivation which sufficed the 
barbarous Indian and the colonist of limited means is 
deemed by many to be proper now, except the plough 
has taken the place of the sharpened bough or the 
shoulder-blade of the moose, the hoe has rei.ilaccd the 



8o THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

clam-shell, the dung-hill is called upon oftener than is 
the sea or the stream for its fish. We now store in 
cribs, rather than in the sacks of our instructors buried 
in the sand ; yet the Southern Indian had cribs, even as 
we have now. 

It is a valuable reflection this, the antiquity of the cul- 
tivation of the corn, and the little progress in the method 
of its culture which civilization has been enabled to add. 
It is worthy of thought, this paradox, that in this one 
case civilization is instructed by barbarism, instead of 
instructing. Did the Indian attain perfection, or is it 
ourselves who are satisfied not to progress ? This latter 
question seems the true one : for the Western farmer has 
departed from the Indian ways, and meets a greater suc- 
cess; the progressive farmer here and there in New 
England has left the track beaten for him by custom, 
and finds his gain. Yes, it is a fact, the cultivation by 
the red man was sufficient for him with his resources, 
but is far from satisfactory for us with our resources. It 
is time we should follow in the line of civilization, even 
if we would not be in the van ; and it is folly for us to 
longer continue in the line traced by barbarians, rather 
than by an educated experience. 

Waushakum Farm, South Framingham, Mass. 



THE IDLENOT PAPERS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

COST OF PRODUCING MILK ONE CENT A QUART, OF BUTTER 
TEN CENTS PER POUND, AND OF PORK THREE CENTS PER 
POUND, BEEF FOR FOUR CENTS A POUND, AND MUTTON 
FOR NOTHING, IF WOOL IS THIRTY CENTS A POUND. 

At Winning Farm I have by careful tests demonstrated 
that milk can be produced for one cent a quart, and a 
clear though small profit made. More than twice as 
much profit can be made by converting the milk into 
butter, even thoucrh the butter is sold for ten cents a 
pound, providing the skim-milk is fed to improved 
breeds of swine. Por producing pork with skim-milk 
and grass, no breed is equal to the well-bred Berkshire. 
I will as briefiy as possible tell how milk can be produced 
for one cent a quart, then show how much more can be 
made by converting the cream of the milk into butter, 
and finally how the greatest amount of pork can be 
raised from the skim-milk. 

To beor-in with, we will assume that a farmer has a 
good farm of 50 acres, with a comfortable house and a 
barn 36 by 48 feet. This barn will hold not far from 25 



82 ' THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

tons of hay and the corn-stalks and butts from about 
two acres of corn. It will probably have a lintel for 
cows on one side of the " floor," a granary and harness- 
room, two or three horse-stalls, and hay-mows on the 
other side. Upon such a farm — if it is a good one — 
there can be kept two horses and lo to 15 cows upon 
hay and grain, providing a partial system of soiling is 
adopted to help out the pasturage during July, August, 
and September. 

To carry on this farm, even though the farmer be ever 
so much of a worker, he will have to keep one good 
hired man at least nine months of the year ; the entire 
resources of the whole farm will have to be devoted to 
the subsistence of the 10 or 15 cows ; all the other crops 
— vegetables, fruit, &c. — will not bring in more cash 
than the grain fed to the cows in addition to that raised 
upon the farm will cost. Now, we will assume that each 
of the 15 cows will produce 2,000 quarts of milk, besides 
that used by the farmer's family : this, if sold for three 
cents a quart, gives $60 as the gross income from each 
cow; that makes the total income from the 15 cows, 
$900. This, I think, is as good a showing as our best 
farmers can exhibit. 

Against this income of $900, there must be charged 
the interest and taxes upon the farm, and other expenses 
as follows : — 



6 per cent on $5,000, value of farm 
Repairs on buildings, 2\ per cent on $2.000 . 
Taxes on farm, $40; taxes on stock, $\o . . 
Interest on stock and farming tools 
\\'ages and board of hired man 9 months, at $30 , 
Depreciation on stock and farming tools, value $1,500, 
cent ........ 



Ca rried fo riva rd 



o per 



$300 00 
50 00 
50 00 
90 00 



150 00 



COST OF FARM-PRODUCE. 83 

Brought forward . . . . . . . $910 00 

Wages of the farmer, besides house-rent, fuel, and produce 

raised on the farm consumed by himself and family . . 400 00 
(This may seem high, but I would like to hire the man and 

his family I am writing about for the same wages and other 

consideration mentioned.) 

Total expense ....... .$1,310 00 

Total income ........ 900 00 

Deficiency .......... $410 00 

In Other words, the farmer who owns a 50-acre farm 
worth $5,000, with stock and farming-tools worth $1,500, 
who keeps 15 cows and sells $900 worth of milk from 
them yearly, if he keep a correct account of expenses, 
instead of receiving $400 for the services of himself and 
family, actually works for nothing except house-rent and 
fuel and vegetables, and pays $10 per year for the privi- 
lege of doing so. 

It must be confessed that this is not very encouraging ; 
and it is no wonder that the boys want to leave the farm, 
and the girls declare that " they won't marry a farmer." 

If my figures are incorrect, I hope some enterprising 
and industrious farmer will show how much better his 
actual results are. Let us have all the items of both 
expense and Income. 

Now, there Is a chance to take a " new departure," 
which will change all this ; and I propose in this and 
subsequent letters to show how it can be done. Under 
the new dispensation, which we will call the " Book of 
Ensilage," Sylvester Idlenot starts with the same 50-acre 
farm, divided into 20 acres arable land, 20 acres pasture, 
and 10 acres in wood, all well fenced, and valued at 
$5,000. Time, March i. He has used plenty of muck 
and road dust for absorbents, so that he will have two 
cords of good manure for each animal, 32 cords in all. 



84 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

A few days ago I called on Sylvester, who is a neighbor 
of mine, in whom I have taken a great deal of interest. 
At first I was interested because I saw he was always at 
work. His motto, like his name, was " Idlenot." From 
his dropping the final t when pronouncing his name, I 
think he is of French descent; probably a "Limerick 
Frenchman." Upon further acquaintance I found he 
had rare good sense. I found him studying over his 
farm-account for the year past. From the expression 
upon his countenance I saw he was not satisfied with 
the results. " Good-morning, Sylvester," said I. "Ah ! 
good morning to yoursilf. It's glad I am to see ye, 
docther : 'tis puzzled intirely I am. Perhaps ye can 
explain the botheration, so that Mary and mesilf can 
see through it." — "I'll try, Sylvester. What is it?" 
I asked. 

"Well, docther, 'tis just this: Me and Mary has been 
married fifteen years this very blessed first day of March. 
When we were married I had saved up $750, and Mary 
had $250, just $1,000 betwixt us. Well, Mary, God 
bless her, she kept right on at work, and she laid up a 
little over $100 a year. I kept right on at work too, 
and laid up me whole wages. (I received $300 a year 
and me board.) I clothed mesilf with what I earned 
doing extras and warrking nights for me master's neigh- 
bors. This made our savings $400 a year. In tin years 
we had saved up, with what we had when we married, 
$5,000, and the interest made it some over $7,000. 
W^ell, we got tired of working for other people, and 
thought we would have a home of our own : so we 
bought this farm, and the stock and the tools and all the 
fixings were all paid for. We had a few hundred dollars 
left. 

" Well, now, I have just been figuring up the last year, 



C0S7' OF F.^i/i:.V-P7^0B^CE. 85 

and it stands this awa)' : We have sold milk amounting 
to $900. The fruit and vegetables and chickens and 
eggs have come to just enough to balance the mate, the 
grocery, and the grain l)ill. As the incomes and the out- 
goes are of a bigness we'll let them go together, and say 
no more about them. When I had got this far without 
stopping to think, I said, ' Mary, the milk-money is all 
clear gain ; ' Mary says to me, ' I don't see it : where is 
the money? ' I began to think again ; says I, " there is 
the ^7,000 in the farm. The year before we bought it 
we got $420 inthrust, that we would have had if we had 
had no farm, so that is no profit belonging to the farm ; 
take that from the $900, and there is only $480 left. 
Thin there was the wagis of one hired man, $15 a month 
and board worth $10 a month, that for nine months is 
$225, that laves only $255; thin there is the taxes, $60, 
the insurance, $10, thin the depraciation in the, stock 
and farming-tools, tin percent on $1,500, — $150; thin 
the repairs on the buildings, 2} percent on $2,000, — 
$50, making $270. Taking that out of $255, all that 
was left of the milk money, and I find mesilf in debt to 
mesilf $15, and nary a cint of wagis for Mary or mesilf. 
' Mary,' says I, ' we have been working hard as iver we 
could work the whole year for our board, and have paid 
$15 for the privilege, and clothed oursilves. All the 
year we have been working hard arning our 07i>;i in- 
thrust money, and giving $15 for the right to do it.' Now, 
docther, what I wants to know is this : ain't there no way 
for a farmer to do, 'cepting to work for nothing and 
clothe himself?" I was very much amused while Syl- 
vester was explaining his figures, and wondered how 
many farmers there are who have kept as accurate an 
account as he has, and could tell whether they were 
maldng any thing or were really working for nothing. 



S6 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

I finally said, " Sylvester, I will tell you how to manage 
your farm and stock so as to receive good wages for 
yourself and also for Mary, and something as a profit. 
How much ready money have you saved up now ? " — 
"Well," says he, "we have a bit over $2,000; we have 
each year saved up just about what the interest would 
be, and worked for our board ever since we bought the 
farm, bad luck ! but it's a good farm too." 

" Well, Sylvester, in the first place, you must buy 
fifty cords of good manure, that will cost you at the rail- 
road-station $6.50 per cord, — $325; that will give you 
82 cords of manure. Spread that as you haul it broad- 
cast upon 15 acres, that will be about 52 cords to the 
acre. After you have got it well spread, come up to my 
place, and get my Thomas smoothing-harrow, and give 
it two good harrowings, one each way. The 15 acres 
will take your ten-acre meadow and the five-acre field 
where you had potatoes and other vegetables last year : 
the other five acres, which is the apple-orchard, you can 
cut the hay early, and then use it as a hog-pasture. 

" Now, immediately after harrowing the five-acre field, 
sow it to spring rye to be fed out green in May. You 
have now a lintel on one side of your barn which will 
hold 16 cows ; you want to make one on the other side 
36 feet long, that will accommodate 12 cows; the other 
1 2 feet will allow for two horse-stalls and a pair of stairs 
to go up to the granary, which you must move up stairs ; 
this gives you room in your barn for 28 cows and two 
horses. All the planting you want to do this year is one- 
half acre of potatoes and a good big kitchen-garden." 
" Never you mind telling me that," broke in Sylvester. 
" Go on, docther : I'm listening wid both ears, and so is 
Mary." 

" Now, after you have your manure all out and spread, 



COS 7' OF FARM-PRODUCE. 



87 



the rye sowed, the garden made, and the potatoes plant- 
ed, you dig a hole into that bank east of your barn, 30 
feet wide, and 45 feet long, and about four feet lower than 
the sills to your barn ; wall it up all round, then plaster 
the walls with concrete, run a wall through the centre, 
cut off the corners, and carry these concrete walls up 
above the top of the earth until they are 16 feet high on 
the inside ; then get a carpenter to put a light roof over 
them to keep the rain and snow out, and you have two 
Silos which will hold 400 tons of Ensilage, two tons of 
which is worth more than one ton of timothy hay. You 
will have to hire some help to build these Silos ; and it 
will take about 125 barrels of cement, besides the labor 
of yourself and hired hand : you will have to pay out in 
building them about $300. Early in May. as soon as 
your spring rye is eighteen inches high, commence to cut 
it, and feed it to your cows in the barn ; the last week in 
May cut the grass in the ten-acre lot ; as soon as you 
have got the hay off of it, turn it over, roll it, take my 
Nishwitz harrow, and harrow it both ways, then plough 
the rye-field, turning under the stubble and the green 
second growth. Rye, if cut before headino-. o-rows a 
second crop. After harrowing that, the same as the sod- 
land (and, Sylvester, let me right here repeat the old 
Pennsylvania Dutchman's advice to his son about pre- 
paring corn-land : ' Shon ! you shust drag and drag and 
drag until you have him shust right, and den you shust 
drag him vonce more, and he vill do pretty veil '), I will 
let you take my Albany corn-planter, and with one horse 
you can plant the whole 15 acres in three days, at the 
same time distributing about 100 pounds of Stockbridge 
corn -manure or some good reliable superphosphate in 
the drills. I use an equal amount of plaster mixed with 
the fertilizer. Make the drills about three and a half 



88 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

feet apart, using from one-half to one bushel of seed- 
corn to the acre, according to the size it grows. I have 
a variety, — the Mammoth Ensilage, — which takes 
only one-half bushel to the acre : the drills want to 
be four feet apart. It will yield on good corn-land, 
well manured, 40 to 75 tons of green-corn-fodder to 
the acre : I guess I can furnish you with seed if you want 
me to. As soon as the corn begins to prick through 
the ground, you must harrow it all over with the 
Thomas smoothing-harrow, and follow it up every week 
or ten days until the corn is a foot high : each harrowing 
will take one day. When it is about waist high, you 
want to go through it once with Hussey's Centennial 
Improved cultivator and horse-hoe ; after that the corn 
will shade the ground so much that there wdll be no 
more weeds ; when this is done, until your corn is ready 
to cut, you and your man can change work with your 
neighbors, helping them in their haying, they to pay 
you back w^hen you save your corn-fodder : having noth- 
ing but the garden to attend to, you will have plenty of 
time to pay in work for all the help you will need then. 
About the ist of September your corn will be in full 
tassel, which is the time to cut it. You w^ill have to buy 
you a cutter, w^hich will cost about $100. You will have 
to hire a small engine, — three to five horse-power will 
do, — and a boy who understands how to run it : this will 
cost about $25 to $40. It will take eight men besides 
yourself to cut the corn-fodder and pack it in the Silos 
to advantage. It will take about ten days to fill the two 
Silos. I think you will have enough on your 15 acres to 
fill them, and have several tons which you will have 
to shock and cure by drying. When the Silos are filled, 
you want to put six inches of rye-straw on top of the 
Ensilage, then lay down on the straw a floor of one and 



COST OF FARM-PRODUCE. 89 

one-fourth spruce plank : on top of this floor put a layer 
of cobble-stones about a foot deep. As soon as )ou 
have done this, plough your corn-land, and sow with 
winter rye. Sow two bushels to the acre. I will loan 
you my Cahoon Broadcast seed-sower to sow the rye : 
with it you can sow the 15 acres in one day, and do it 
far better than by hand. Harrow it in with the smooth- 
ing-harrow, then roll. In the spring, harrow the rye as 
soon as it begins to grow, and follow it up once a week 
until it is eight or ten inches high. This harrowing 
loosens the ground, kills the weeds, and causes the rye 
to tiller more, thereby increasing the crop from 20 to 
50 per cent." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SECOND IDLENOT PAPER. 

About two months after my last interview with Sylves- 
ter Idlenot, when I advised him to try Ensilage, I saw 
him coming up the walk to my house, evidently In a 
botheration. As he opened the office-door I said, 
" Good-morning, Sylvester. Take a chair. How are 
Mary and the boys ? " 

" All well, God bless 'em, I thank ye ; but it's in 
throuble I am intirely ! " 

" What is the matter, Sylvester? " I asked anxiously. 

" Well, docther, 'tis just this. You know, last March 
ye happened into my house just as I was figuring up the 
account for the year, and we had made nothing but 
shelter and our vittles. Shure, we always had a roof over 
our heads, and plenty to ate, and comfortable clothes on 
our backs, and laid up three and four hundred dollars each 
year, and niver touched the bit of inthrust money our 
savings was arning. After we bought the farm, and 
since then, divil a cint have we laid up more'n the in- 
thrust would have been. Well, you, docther, told me 
what to do, and I'm a-doin' it; and now we're ruined 
intirely ! " 

This sounded rather ominous ; and I said, with more 
90 



PRICE OF M//.K. 91 

anxiety than curiosity this time, " Sylvester, what is the 
matter ? " 

" Docther, I've been following your directions, for I 
thought it was sinsible ; and besides, I'd seen how well 
your own stock looked that was fed on the insilage; and 
ses I to Mary, it's thrying it we'll be after doing. So I 
bought the manure, and I spread it broadcast on the tin- 
acre field and five-acre lot: the grass 'tis just growing 
splendid ! We sowed the five acres to rye, and up to 
me shoulder it is, and so thick ye can hardly make your 
way through it. We are feeding it tO the cows, and 
have been for a while or two." 

" Well, don't they do well, and give a good mess of 
milk ? " I asked, interrupting him. 

" Niver better, but that ain't the throuble," said he. 

"Well, what is it? Tell me, what is the matter, Syl- 
vester ? " I asked. 

" I'm coming to it, docther, directly. I'll tell ye im- 
mejitly. I was at warrk on me siloos. I've got 'em 
more'n half done already. Day before yesterday, whin 
I looked up, there right forninst me stood the con- 
thractor ! ' So you are going to thry the docther's new- 
fangled feed, are ye, Sylvester ? ' — ' Yes, indade I am,' I 
said : ' it is tired I am making milk, and selling it to the 
likes of ye for less tiian it costs to make it.' 

'"I read all about it in the noosepapers,' said he : 
* ye's going to make it for a cint a quart. It's foine 
business ye'll have making milk for a cint a quart and 
selling it for three ; ' and he wunk a knowing kind of a 
wink as he got on to his wagin, and druv away. Ses I 
to myself, Fhat the divil is that conthractor winkingf like 
that to me for ? and thin I thought about the noosepa- 
pers telling all about the siloo and the insilage, and at 
the head of the whole story was, ' How to projuce milk 



92 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

for one cint a quart ; ' and it sthruck me all of a suddint. 
Ah, docther, ye's guv us away wid your noosepapers, 
and ruined the whole business, bad luck to it ! I niver 
did belave in book-farming, anyhow ! " 

Sylvester wiped the perspiration from his brow, and 
looked the personification of disgust. " Why, Sylves- 
ter," I said, " how can that be ? What harm can there be 
in writing down our conversation and the advice I gave 
you, and printing it so that others may profit with us in 
the advantages which the new system of Ensilage gives ? 
Surely you are not so selfish that you do not want other 
farmers to share with us the good times which the gen- 
eral adoption of the new system will bring about ? " 

" No, no, docther : it isn't the farmers that I want to 
kape in the darkness and throuble they are now in, by 
any manes ; but the milk conthractors — may the divil 
fly away wid every mother's son of them ! As soon as 
they foind out we can make a quart of milk for a cint, 
not a farden more thin a cint will they pay us for our 
milk. And that's what's the trouble altogether ! Fhat's 
the use of all your exparimints ? The conthractor — 
bad luck to the likes of 'im — will get the oisther and 
lave us the shells like he does now. Shure thim's the 
b'ys fhat makes their foine living by the sweat of ither 
men's brows ! " 

I laughed at this, and proceeded to finish the advice 
I gave Sylvester last March. "Sylvester," I said, "you 
are keeping your cows now on rye. All right: continue 
to feed the rye to them until the first of June, then turn 
them into the pasture. By that time there will be plenty 
of feed which will carry them till fall, with the help of a 
little grain. In fact, keep them as you would if you 
were not trying the Ensilage system. Finish your Silos. 
When you have them filled with the corn Ensilage, put 



XO CHAiXGE REQUIRED. 93 

a lintel on the other side of the barn, and in about a 
month buy thirteen more cows, and keep them in the 
barn, turning them out every day an hour or two in 
the yard to exercise. Feed the Ensilage to them twice 
a day, about a bushel (25 or 30 pounds) to a feed. The 
two Silos will hold about four hundred tons ; that, with 
the rye Ensilage, will be sufficient to keep fifty cows the 
year through, if you give to each cow, in addition to the 
Ensilage, about four pounds of bran or cotton-seed meal 
daily while she is in milk." 

" But, docther, won't the cows and sheep get tired of 
the insilage, and need a change sometimes ?" asked Sil- 
vester. 

" I don't see that there will be any need of a change," 
I replied ; " I have fed cattle upon it exclusively for sev- 
eral months, and they like it better and eat it with 
greater avidity than ever. It is almost the same as fresh 
pasture grass when bran or cotton-seed meal is fed with 
it, and is certainly as good as fresh pasture, as the 
cattle can eat their fill without labor. When there is 
plenty of food in the pastures, no one dreams of offer- 
ine a chajio-c to stock. You \v\\\ have but 28 cows, and 
that is all I advise you to keep ; but, as you have the 
feed for 22 more, you must build a shed on the south 
side of the Silo, 24 feet wide and 47 feet long; fence in 
a yard of about one-quarter of an acre of that high, dry 
ridge east and south of your Silos, and buy 100 breeding- 
ew^es, common merinos, such as I bought last fall, only 
you need not bother about their breeding. If they are 
grades they will answer just as well. 

" As I am advising you what to do, I will let you take 
two of my Cotswold bucks to put with them. If they 
turn out well, you can pay me for the use of them what 
you think is right. Now you will want to buy six good 



94 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

brood-sows (any large breed), and a pure Berkshire 
boar to use on them. You can keep the 28 cows, the 
100 sheep, and the seven hogs on the Ensilage which you 
will raise on the 15 acres. If the contractor tries to beat 
down the price of milk, you can make butter, and have 
the skimmed milk to feed to the pigs. If your cows 
each give 2,000 quarts of milk per year, you can make 
200 pounds at least of butter. The skim-milk, the run 
of the five-acre orchard (you must ring the hogs when 
you turn them out to pasture), and Ensilage in the win- 
ter, will make you at least 500 pounds of pork to each 
cow. This will give you $20 for butter, if you have to sell 
it at ten cents per pound. 500 pounds pork at three 
cents per pound is $15. You will also raise a fine calf 
worth at least %\o when a year old. This gives you for 
each cow $45, or $1,260 for the 28 head. Your 100 
sheep will shear you seven pounds of wool on an average 
(my merinos average between nine and ten pounds), 
worth unwashed at least 30 cents per pound, $2.10 a head, 
or $210 on the whole flock. Then you will raise, by the 
use of Cotswold bucks, 90 lambs or more, which will be 
worth when four months old, at least $4 per head ; this 
is $360 more. Now let us see : your income will be as 
follows : — 



For butter, 5,600 pounds, at 10 cents 

For pork, 14,000 pounds, at 3 cents 

28 yearlings, at $10 apiece . 

700 pounds wool at 30 cents 

90 lambs (Cotswold merinos) at ^4 



Total 



5560 00 
420 00 
2 So 00 
210 00 
^60 00 



^1,830 00 



" You must in the future, as in the past, make the 
sales of fruit, eggs, poultry, and vegetables pay the 
butcher's and grocer's bills, so that there will be to 



PROFITS OF ENSILAGE. 



95 



come out of the $1,830 the following items of ex- 
pense : — 



Interest on farm, value .... 
Interest on stock and depreciation on farming 

tools, value ..... 
Interest on 13 additional cows, value 
Interest on 100 sheep, " 

Interest on stock of manure bought, " 
Interest on Silos, cash paid out, " 

Interest on sheep-shed, " 



!5,ooo 00 $300 00 

1,500 00 150 00 
520 00 ^ 
400 00 

325 00 [> III 70 
300 00 
150 00 J 



,195 00 



Total investment 
Wages and board of one hired man six months, at ^25 . 
Repairs on buildings and fences ...... 

Taxes and insurance ........ 

Bran and cotton-seed meal, four pounds daily to each cow when 
in milk .......... 

Grain for sheep and horses ....... 



Total expense 



150 00 
50 OQ 
80 00 

280 00 
150 00 

1^1,271 70 



"This leaves for you and Mary $558.30." 
" Fhat ! $558 and 30 cints ! besides inthrust and all 
expinses is it ? " asked Sylvester, who had been watching 
me closely, " and no thanks to the conthractor ; wid biit- 
ther at tin cints a pound, and pork at three cints a pound, 
wool at 30 cints a pound, and Cotswold Merriny lambs 
at $4 apiece ! Shure, that is too low for the lambs any- 
way. Your lambs, docther, of the same kind, weighed 
over 100 pounds apiece whin only five months old ; for, 
d'ye moind, I helped ye to weigh them meself." 

"That's so," I replied: " they will be worth from $5 to 
$7 each ; so will the butter be worth more than ten cents 
a pound, and the pork be worth more than three cents a 
pound. I have put the prices low, in order to show you 
what can be done by the system of Ensilage. Now, Syl- 
vester, you and Mary take hold of this as you do of 



9'6 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

every thing you undertake ; and, my word for It, you 
will think you have found the real ' philosopher's stone.' 
After you have tried it one year, show me your account. 
If it is not better than last year, I'll pay the difference 
out of my own pocket." 

" Ye'U not be called upon to do that, docther," said 
Sylvester ; " and ye can depind upon Mary and me and 
the b'ys to thry." 



CHAPTER XVII. 



ANALYSIS OF ENSILAGE FROM THE " WINNING-FARM SILOS. 

By C. A. Gocssmati}!, Ph.D., 

Professor of Chemistry, Chanist to the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 
and State Inspector of Commercial Fertilizers. 

The sample of Silo corn (Ensilage) consists of: — 



Moisture at 2i2°-220° Fahrenheit 
Dry matter left 



PER CENT. 
80.70 
19.30 





100.00 


is dry matter consists of: — 






PARTS. 


Crude cellulose .... 


6.43 


Fat ether abstract .... 


0.62 


Albuminoids ..... 


. . 1.56 


Non-nitrogenous extract matter 


8.92 


Ash (with traces of sand) 


1.77 



19.30 



Also an average analysis of the corn-plant in the 
milk : — 



Moisture at 21 2^-220° Fahrenheit 
Dry matter .... 



PER CENT. 
85.04 
14.96 

100.00 

97 



98 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 





PARTS. 


Ash ...... 


0.82 


Albuminoids 


0.86 


Fat 


0.26 


Crude cellulose .... 


4-53 


Non-nitrogenous extractive matter 


8.49 



By comparing the two tables it will be seen that the 
Ensilage contains over 29 per cent more dry matter than 
the whole plant in the milk; over 41 per cent more of 
crude cellulose ; over 138 per cent more of fat ; over 81 
percent more albuminoids ; over 5 per cent more of non- 
nitrogenous extract matter; over 115 per cent more ash 
(or mineral constituents). 

It will also be seen that the nutritive ratio of the 
Ensilage is one part of albuminoids to 6i"o parts of non- 
nitrogenous extractive matter (digestible carbo-hydrates) . 
This makes its nutritive ratio a little better than timothy 
hay, which is, according to Dr. Wolff, i to 81V, but not 
quite as good as average clover hay, which is i to 5^%. 
By this analysis Ensilage would seem to be much nearer 
a perfect food than I have supposed. If the results of 
careful experiments in feeding coincide with the above 
analysis, the system of Ensilage is far more perfect and 
important than I have even hoped. 

I shall institute a series of experiments to test this 
point ; for, however satisfactory a chemical analysis may 
be, the real touchstone is the feeding value demon- 
strated by careful and repeated experiments. 

What farmers want to know is not what an article of 
food is worth chemically, but how much it is worth to 
feed to their stock. 

My experiments thus far satisfy me that the value of 
corn-fodder is doubled by the softening and fermentive 
process which it imdcrgoes in the Silos ; that two tons of 



ANALVS/S OF ENSILAGE. 



99 



it arc worth more to feed than four tons of corn-fodder 
fresh from the fields, or one ton of best timothy hay. 

I received the above analysis the last of April, and at 
once resolved to test it by experimentation. April 29 I 
selected two thoroughbred two-year-old Jersey bulls, 
and weighed them. " Rossmore " weighed 960 pounds, 
" Hero " weighed 890 pounds. " Rossmore " was fed 
40 pounds of Ensilage daily, and nothing else. " Hero " 
was fed 40 pounds of Ensilage and three pounds of 
wheat-bran daily, and notJiing more. June 2 I weighed 
them again, and found that " Rossmore " weighed 960 
pounds, having neither gained nor lost ; showing, so far 
as one experiment could, that 40 pounds of Ensilage 
containing over 80 per cent of water was sufficient to 
sustain in a healthy condition the functions of the 
animal system, and replace the waste tissue. His hair 
was smooth, he appeared to be satisfied, and Sylvester 
thought he was gaining. " Hero " at this time weighed 
943 pounds, being a gain of 53 pounds in 34 days, or 
i-55i7 pounds daily: as it took the 40 pounds of Ensi- 
lage to sustain the animal, it follows, that 102 pounds of 
wheat-bran, fed with the Ensilage, produced 53 pounds 
of beef (live weight). 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

HOW TO PRESERVE GREEN CORN FOR THE TABLE. 

During my visit at " Linden Grove," the home of T. 
S. Cooper, the well-known importer of choice, high-class 
Berkshires and Oxfordshire-down sheep (see portrait of 
Freeland), upon my describing Ensilage to Mr. and 
Mrs. Cooper one evening, I was surprised and pleased 
to learn from Mrs. Cooper that she had been Ensilaging 
o-reen corn for a lone time for her table. I asked her to 
tell me how she prepared it, and she replied as follows : 
" I take fresh ears of green sweet corn, cut the corn 
from the cobs, pack it down solidly in a large stone jar, 
cover it on the top with about two inches of salt, put a 
follower on the salt, and weight it. Whenever I wish to 
prepare some for the table, I soak it until fresh, or 
change the water in which I boil it as often as necessary. 
When it is cooked, I drain the water from it by letting it 
stand in a colander a few minutes, then season to suit ; 
or, after it is nearly done, the water may be drained off, 
and nice rich milk added, in which let it simmer until 
ready to serve." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MY EXPERIENCE WITH SUGAR-BEETS. COST OF RAISING ONE- 
FOURTH OF AN ACRE, AND THE YIELD. 



DEBIT. 



Seed 

12 bushels wood-ashes 

I GO pounds salt 

2^ cords manure at $6 pei 

Ploughing twice 

Cultivating and harrowing 

Raking the ground half a day 

Planting one-fourth day . 

Weeding and thinning, 4 days 

Harvesting, 2 days . 

Total . 



$1 


50 


I 


So 




50 


15 


GO 


2 


GO 


I 


00 




50 




25 


4 


00 


2 


00 



."28 55 



CREDIT. 

252 bushels at 60 lbs. to the bushel, 15,120 lbs. at ^4 per ton . . $30 24 
One-half the value of the manure, salt, and ashes left in the ground 8 65 



Total 
Cost 



$35 89 
=S 55 



Profit $10 34 

The piece of land was broken up a year ago last spring, planted that 
season with potatoes and beans, manured lightly in the hill. The beetles 
ate the potato-vines all up, so that potatoes there were none : the beans 
bore a very light crop. Before it was broken up, the land produced 
perhaps half a ton of hay to the acre of fine June grass. This was the 
first time I ever raised sugar-beets, and the result so well satisfied me 
that if there were a beet-sugar factory near me I would raise five to 
ten acres next year. The profit on an acre would be $41.36, which is 



I02 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

more than any thing else has yielded, except land cultivated by our 
market-gardeners. 

I have no fears but what, by applying \\ cords of manure to the same 
piece, I could raise ten to twelve tons another time, for I learned some- 
thing last season. I had them too thick : the rows were twenty-eight 
inches apart, and as my men hated to pull up nice plants they left them 
too close together. Next year I shall plant the rows three feet apart, 
and thin to twelve inches. I shall not try this piece with i;^ cords of 
manure, however : I shall put on at least three cords. I raised 225 
bushels of long red mangels on one-eighth of an acre, right alongside of 
the sugar-beets, and on another eighth of an acre side of them 160 
bushels of yellow globe mangels. All these pieces were manured alike 
and cultivated the same. 

Now, I want to inquire whether I had better spread about 200 loads 
of manure on the land I intend to break up next spring, as I get it out 
next week ; or put it in a pile, and spread it in the spring after plough- 
ing, the ground being frozen. I cleaned my barn-cellar out in October. 
The cellar is cemented on the bottom, and the walls pointed with cement. 
I have made this manure since then. I have thirty-two head of cattle, 
four horses in the barn and twenty-nine head of swine in the cellar. 

I had no idea how much manure I was losing until I cemented the 
cellar bottom. I have been constantly throwing in dry loam and muck 
at the rate of one to two loads per day, besides bedding my cattle with 
sand and the horses with meadow-hay ; and now, since the urine of all 
the animals is saved, the pig-pens which extend under all the stalls and 
lintels are so wet and soft that the hogs are unable to get from one end 
to the other. 

I feed one hundred pounds of cotton-seed meal, sixty pounds of corn 
meal, fifty pounds of shorts, and twenty-four quarts of oats daily, besides 
the food of the swine. I believe that dry muck or loam thoroughly sat- 
urated with urine from animals fed as above, and worked up into a per- 
fect mush, is as good to grow crops as the same bulk of solid excrement. 
Am I right? I should like to know whether I had better spread my 
manure on the ground, or pile it. 

Yours respectfully, 

John M. Bailey. 

(In American Cultivator.) 



Winning Farm, Nov. i, 1S78. 



From this experiment I am satisfied that sugar-beets 
can be raised at a profit. The sugar- factories are now 



SUGA R-BEE TS. 1 03 

paying five dollars per ton, which would make the profit 
on my quarter of an acre $17.90, or at the rate of $71.60 
per acre ; but, in order to realize the greatest profit, the 
pulp should be returned to the farm, and fed out to the 
stock thereon. By the system of preserving- cattle-food 
in Silos, this can be done most economically. A small 
Silo ten feet wide, twenty feet long, and ten feet deep, 
will hold about sixty tons of pulp. By covering it with 
a little straw, and upon that a flooring of plank, with 
weights upon it, the same as in the Silos of corn Ensi- 
lage, it may be kept for a long time. The beet-pulp, 
containing as it does all the nutrition except a part of 
the sugar, would be an excellent food to feed with the 
corn Ensilage. It is also a very good article of food for 
swine by itself.^ 

In regard to the manure, I have demonstrated by 
several careful experiments since the above was written, 
that the best time and way to apply manure is when you 
have time, and with a broadcast manure-spreader. 

^ I have learned, since writing the above, that the best way to raise sugar-beets 
is to have the rows eighteen inches apart, and to thin to nine inches. 



CHAPTER XX. 

SUMMARY. 

To .sum up, I will say that large Silos 40 to 50 feet 
long, 15 to 18 feet wide, and 16 to 24 feet deep, are the 
cheapest : they will not cost more than one dollar for 
each ton's capacity. As two tons of Ensilage are worth 
more than one ton of English or timothy hay, the com- 
parative economy of Ensilage is at once manifest. They 
require no repairs, and if properly built will last for ages. 

The cost, therefore, of storage-room for Ensilage is 
about six cents per ton yearly. In order to store its 
equivalent of hay as cheaply, a barn to store a hundred 
tons of hay would have to be bidltfor two IniJidred dollars. 
My plans of building Silos are cheaper than to dig pits 
in the ground. The small pits which are used in France, 
and described by Charles L. Flint, Secretary State Board 
of Agriculture, in his last report, would cost much more 
to construct, the labor of filling and weighting them be 
much greater. 

Since the publication of the last State Agricultural Re- 
port, I have had the pleasure of showing my system of 
Ensilage to Secretary Flint. After critically examining 
the Silos, the Ensilage, and the stock fed upon it, he de- 
clared " that the system of Ensilage would work a per- 
fect revolution in agricultural methods in this country." 
The system of Ensilage reduces the comparative value 



ENSILAGE VS. ILIV. IO5 

of good timothy hay to four dollars per ton, and of 
hay-barns to two dollars for each ton's capacity. The 
labor of feeding is lessened very materially ; the health, 
condition, and appearance of the stock is immeasurably 
improved. In short, it will bring about, ujjon its general 
introduction and adoption, an agricultural millennium — 
almost. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

EFFECT OF ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION IN ENSILAGE UPON 
" GILT-EDGED BUTTER." 

The following letter was received from a gentleman 
with whom I have had considerable correspondence 
upon the subject of " Ensilage." 

SoDUS, Wayne County, N.Y., April i'6, i8So. 
Mr. John M. Bailey. 

Dear Sir, — Yesterday I received a visit from Professor L. B. Arnold, 
the dairy-writer. The subject of " Ensilage " came up, and its effect on 
"gilt-edged butter,'' &c. He is very strong of the opinion that the 
alcoholic fermentation that is begun will injure the fine flavor and text- 
ure that is desirable in my trade. I am very anxious to read your book 
so as to clear up these points ; and, if there is any thing further that you 
can say on the subject, I would be very glad to hear from you. 

I haven't got that copy of the paper with your article, " How to pro- 
duce milk for one cent a quart, butter for ten cents a pound, beef for 
four cents a pound, and pork for three cents a pound," yet. 

Respectfully, 

A. J. Rice. 

P. S. Just received and read it. 

As Professor Arnold is so great an authority, as he is 
supposed to know every thing concerning dairy matters, 
it will doubtless be deemed presumptuous in me to say, 
and attempt to prove, that the learned professor is mis- 
taken. Let us consider through what organs, changes, 

io6 



ALCOHOL ON BUTTER. 107 

and circumstances the small amount of alcohol (which is 
found in the Ensilage) passes before it can reach the 
butter. 

In the first place, the alcohol is only an incident to the 
great change which has been taking place in the Ensi- 
laged forage. This change, which is so important and so 
useful, is the conversion of the starch contained in the 
plants into sugar. The formation of alcohol is only a 
nutritive barometer which tells us that suo^ar has been 
formed. The odor of alcohol is hardly perceptible until 
after the Ensilage has been exposed to the action of the 
oxygen of the atmosphere twelve to twenty-four hours. 

Therefore, if the professor is correct, it is in the power 
of the dairyman to prevent the formation of alcohol by 
feedincr direct from the Silo without allowinof the alco- 
holic fermentation to take place.' Thus, if an evil, it is 
easily avoided. 

In the second place, the small amount of alcohol pres- 
ent in the Ensilage (I have never seen any of my cows 
intoxicated) is mixed with the saliva during the process 
of mastication, and passes with the Ensilage into the 
first stomach, or paunch, thence into the second stomach. 
It is then re-masticated by chewing the cud, and passes 
into the third stomach, thence into the fourth stomach, 
where it is digested. 

When cows are fed upon Ensilage, I have noticed 
that their breath is particularly sweet, as if fed upon the 
sweetest grasses. From the stomach it passes into the 
intestines, from which that part of their contents neces- 
sary for the nourishment of the animal economy is taken 
up by two sets of vessels ; first, the blood-vessels of the 
intestines, and passes through the portal vein to the 
liver. There the portal vein is divided and subdivided 
into an infinity of minute branches as they reach the lit- 



108 • THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

tie glandular lobules which compose the liver. Here 
they break up into a plexus of microscopic vessels as 
fine as those which originally absorbed from the intestines 
the nutritive matter with which they are filled. These 
minute vessels fill the entire substance of the liver with 
a vascular net-work. Then these little vessels collect 
together again, and unite into larger ones, until at last 
they leave the liver as the hepatic vein, which conveys 
the nutritive matter called chyle. Chyle is also absorbed 
by the lacteal vessels, and conveyed by the thoracic duct 
to the sub-clavian vein, and by both sets of vessels is 
conveyed into and finally mingled with the venous blood 
returning to the heart. By the contraction of the right 
auricle it is forced into the right ventricle, which in turn 
contracts, and forces the blood into the pulmonary artery, 
which conveys the blood, chyle, and — alcohol? — to 
the lungs. There this artery divides into numberless 
branches which penetrate and encircle all the minute 
spaces between and about the air-vesicles. Here the 
blood is subjected to the action of the air which is in- 
haled by the lungs. Now, alcohol is very volatile ; and if 
any of the alcohol has got thus far with the blood on its 
way to the milk, there can be no doubt that it would all 
be thrown off with the expiration of the breath. 

But, having followed it thus far, let us go clear 
through to the churn, whether the alcohol keeps up with 
us or not. 

From the lungs the blood is returned to the heart, 
which by the contraction of the left ventricle forces it all 
through the system. A large amount of blood is carried 
to the milk-glands. The milk-glands' office is to secrete 
milk. They secrete nothing else which is in the blood 
excepting those elements which constitute milk, — pro- 
viding the animal is in a healthy condition. 



♦ ALCOHOL ON BUTTER. jon 

But wc will suppose, for the sake of the argument, that 
the alcohol is secreted by the milk-glands, and is drawn 
from the udder mingled with the milk. A portion of it 
rises with the cream, and is churned. Of course a larcre 
portion of this alcohol, which has got thus far, must 
remain in the buttermilk : the remainder must be so 
infinitesimally small that it could have no perceptible 
effect upon the butter. 

It is evident that the professor means, when he says 
that the " fine flavor and texture " will be injured by the 
alcohol, that this injury is accomplished by the bodily 
presence of alcohol in such a quantity as to destroy the 
integrity of the butter globules ; in other words, to 
" cut" the butter as oil is " cut" when it is shaken in a 
bottle with strong alcohol. 

Now, this alcohol, which goes all the way through the 
various organs of the cow until it is found in the butter, 
— be the amount greater or smaller, — certainly cannot 
be very high ''proof; " and dilute alcohol has no power 
to disintegrate butter, for you cannot "cut" ever so 
small an amount of any kind of oil with alcohol the 
strength of which, at once small, grows beautifully less 
by being subjected to unlimited dilution every time the 
cow drinks, and to evaporation every time she breathes. 

There are millions of exrrctory ducts, organs, and 
glands, in the animal organism, whose office it is to 
remove from the system the waste tissue and such use- 
less substances (alcohol for instance) from the system 
as may have been taken up by the absorbents. Does 
Professor Arnold expect he can run alcohol through a 
cow with these millions of leaks for it to escape by, and 
catch it in the milk-pail strong enough to disintegrate 
butter? 

But the milk-glands are not excretory, but secretory 



I lo THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

organs, whose office it is to secrete milk, not to remove 
useless matters from the organism. Even if an infinitely 
small amount of alcohol could get into the milk (which is 
absurd), and if it had the power to disintegrate or " cut" 
(in a measure) butter (which it would not) , I fail to see 
how it could injure the flavor (and every thing but the 
pure alcohol would be there anyway). Why, alcohol is 
the vehicle in which the most delicate flavors are pre- 
served, while the sweetest odors of the roses of June are 
saved by incorporating them into alcohol. 

I think I have demonstrated, first, that if the pure 
alcohol gets into the milk it could do no harm to the 
flavor of the butter ; second, that it would be infinitely 
diluted, so as to be powerless to aff"ect the texture ; 
third, that the amount would be infinitesimally small, 
that it could not be detected ; and, fourth, that none 
could get there at all. 

Now, my friend Rice, let us prove this thing by actual 
experiment. Give to each of your cows daily a table- 
spoonful of alcohol (which is more than there is in a 
cow's daily ration of Ensilage) ; sprinkle it upon their 
food ; examine the butter critically which is made while 
the alcohol is being administered : if it is injured in 
flavor or texture in the least, the professor is right, 
and I am wrong; if, on the other hand, it is uninjured, 
why, for once he is mistaken. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

MODEL DAIRY STABLE ADAPTED TO THE SYSTEM OF ENSILAGE. 

Fig. No. i (see next page) shows the ground-plan 
of a dairy estabHshment 76 feet wide, 127 feet long, 
capable of accommodating 1 18 cows, the necessary young 
cattle if dairy stock is to be raised, or, if cows are bought, 
ample room for a flock of 100 sheep, together with their 
year's supply of forage. There is an engine-room at the 
right-hand corner, 12 x 18 feet ; next, a 12 x 14 feet milk 
and butter room, small shaft enters to attach churn to. 
Next, three box-stalls, 8 X 12 feet, opening out of a 
passage-way six feet wide, which leads from the principal 
feedinor-floor to the milk and enorine room. The milk 
and butter room is sheathed up on the outside with well- 
seasoned, planed, and matched lumber, and plastered on 
the inside, with double doors to prevent any odors from 
entering. The floor of the engine and butter rooms, and 
of the entire establishment, is cement. 

A, A, A, represent an elevated track, upon which a 
box holding Ensilage enough to feed 25 cows is sus- 
pended. This track is overhead in the centre of the 
feed- floors. 

The first floor into which the Silos open is 12 feet 
wide ; next to this is a manger 2^ feet wide ; next is the 
lintel floor, four feet ten inches wide ; next, gutter, one 



112 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 




MODEL DAIRY STABLE. 



I I 








1 14 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

foot ; next, passage-way, four feet ; next, gutter, one foot ; 
then another lintel, five feet ten inches ; next, a manger, 
2! feet (by mistake it is drawn as two feet: the lintel 
floors are also drawn 5! feet wide, they should be 4 feet 
10 inches to 5 feet wide) ; now comes feed-floor from 
which two rows of cows are fed ; between this floor and 
the next are two lintels, with mangers, gutters, and pas- 
sage-way as above ; then comes the last passage-way or 
feed-floor ; upon one side of this floor the lintel extends 
clear across the structure. The space 18 X 56 feet on 
the left of the Silos may be used as a sheep-shed, or be 
subdivided to suit for the keeping of calves, &c. 

Fig. 2 is an elevation of the same, showing the general 
shape of the superstructure, also position and an end 
view of the mangers, position of the gutters, which 
should be about six inches deep ; also sloping floor upon 
which the cows stand ; this floor should incline towards 
the gutter, one inch at least to the foot. On this side 
of the stable there should be three sliding doors, one at 
the corner, the others in centres of the double lintels. 
They should be nine feet wide, so that the manure can be 
loaded upon a manure-spreader or cart, and be hauled 
directly to the fields, and spread upon the land. 

The dotted line at the left hand shows that portion 
of the Silos which is under ground. This figure is 
drawn with the posts 16 feet high, which is higher than 
is necessary: 10 feet is ample. The Silos are 18 X 48 
feet inside, and 23 feet deep: they will hold 1,000 tons 
of Ensilage, which is. sufficient to feed 100 cows one 
year. The rye Ensilage, which can be raised upon the 
same land as the 1,000 tons of corn Ensilage, will furnish 
plenty of feed to keep the other 18 cows, the calves 
and young stock, or 100 to 150 sheep. 

Fig. 3 shows how the travelling feed-box may be 



MODEL DAIRY STABLE. 



115 



constructed. The bottom is sloped up at the end ; 
the head-boards can be taken out. A 12 to 16 tined 
fork, such as is used to handle charcoal, may be used 
to feed with. A litde experience will enable the feeder 
to measure upon the fork the necessary amount of 
Ensilage to each cow. If the Improved Ensilage is 




Fig. -5. 

used, it will not take one man more than one hour to 
feed the whole 1 18 cows. If the grain be fed separatel)-, 
it will take at least an hour to feed the grain alone. 
This feed-box is made four feet long, 2.] feet wide, and 
2 J feet high. 



Il6 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

This dairy establishment can be built, Silos and all, 
for less than one-half the cost of the necessary storage 
and stable room, when the same amount of stock are 
kept upon hay and grain. 

The corn-fodder and green rye necessary to keep the 
ii8 cows, calves, and yearlings or sheep, can be raised 
upon 30 acres of good land, while upon a hay and grain 
diet it would require at least 1 18 acres of the very best 
land to keep the cows alone. 

Ensilage will re-people and restore the old deserted 
farms of New England. Thousands of these farms, with 
comfortable buildings, can be bought for less than half 
the improvements would cost. 

The hitherto insurmountable difnculty has been to get 
a stock of manure to begin with, there being none for 
sale in the back counties, and the transportation from the 
cities would make it cost too much. I propose to show 
how that obstacle can be overcome. Let the purchaser 
of one of these old farms commence operations in the 
spring. He will require a pair of good strong horses, and 
need a couple of cows, a dozen or two of fowls, and ought 
to have four good breeding-sows and a Berkshire boar. 
Turn the cows and the hogs out to pasture ; cut down 
and burn the bushes upon the best of the old grass-fields ; 
the last of May and the first of June break up 15 acres, 
turning under the green growth ; \{ there is a good thick 
sod, it would pay to sow broadcast 100 pounds of nitrate 
of soda to the acre about the 20th of April : this will 
stimulate the grass to grow, and give a much larger 
green crop to turn under. After breaking, harrow twice 
with the Randall disk-harrow, then with the smoothing- 
harrow. Flant in drills four feet apart, using half a 
bushel of Mammoth Ensilage seed-corn to the acre, 
and distribute in the drills 200 to 300 pounds of Bradley's 



//Oir TO RESTORE THE OLD FARM. 



117 



X L phosphate, or any other eq^ually good and rehable 
fertilizer, if you can obtain it. I have used the X L 
phosphate for many years, and it has never disappointed 
me. On land where there is but little erass to turn 
under, better broadcast from 200 to 300 pounds of phos- 
phate, and harrow it in before planting. The corn 
comes up large and strong, with a dark, healthy green 
color : it soon carries it out of the way of the cut-worm, 
and is sufficient for its rapid growth until the rootlets 
reach the mass of decaying vegetable matter turned 
under, which is one of the best fertilizers to make an im- 
mense growth of corn. The corn will be ten days earlier, 
and twice as large, for the phosphate. In short, about 
200 pounds of standard fertilizer to the acre in the drill 
w^ill pay, no matter how much stable-manure you may 
have. The labor saved of preparing, composting, and 
distributing the stable manure will pay for and apply the 
phosphate, so that whatever fertilizing material there is 
in the phosphate actually costs nothing. 

15 acres, planted and fertilized as above, will produce 
at least 300 tons of corn-fodder. After planting is 
finished, build two Silos after the plan on page J2)y but 
larger, say 15 feet wide, 12 or 15 feet high, and 30 to 35 
feet long: they will cost about $80 to ^100 for cement, 
lumber, and extra labor in laying the wall, besides the 
labor of the farmer and his team. Now the man who has 
followed my plan thus far, and Ensilaged his corn-fodder, 
will find himself, at the approach of winter, with ample 
forage to keep 30 cows the year round, or to winter 60 
head, or five cows and 250 to 300 sheep. If he has 
money enough, and his wife is a strong and able help- 
mate, and they fancy dairying, let him buy 25 good new- 
milch cows, sell butter, and follow the advice given Syl- 
vester with swine. 



Il8 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

If he has but httle money, or does not Hke dairying, 
let him take sheep to keep upon shares, saving the best 
ewe lambs. The sale of wool and ram lambs will give 
him a good revenue. In the spring, if he has used, as 
he should, plenty of dry muck or loam for absorbents, he 
will have a pile of manure which will make the old field 
smile. Thereafter pursue the course laid down (see 
page ■})"]^, — sow winter rye (applying the stable-manure 
broadcast during the fall and winter), to cut and Ensilage 
in May or the first of June, then plough at once, and drill 
in the corn with phosphate. Every year will witness 
increased fertility, more stock, larger crops, and greater 
prosperity. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

In conclusion, fellow- farmers, let me tell you why I 
have written this book. In the first place, I am actuated 
by an earnest desire to do all I can to improve the con- 
dition of the American farmer. His life has been too 
long a life of toil and drudgery. He has had little if 
any time for social enjoyment or intellectual improve- 
ment. Hard work continuously, accompanied by the 
most parsimonious economy, has been the only way by 
which he could hope to acquire a competence for his old 
age. In this fierce struggle oftentimes the farmer's wife 
has had the hardest lot of the two ; working from early 
morn until late at night, the slave of a horde of hired 
men the profit on whose labor, by the old systems, was 
so slender that the expense of a hired girl would have 
put the balance on the wrong side, till at last, weary and 
worn, too often she lies down to her last sleep when but 
half way on the journey of life ; leaving a family of 
children to grow up as best they may, without any of 
those tender and hallowed influences which ought to 
surround every fireside, and make its bright and happy 
memories in after life a golden shield of protection to 
keep them from straying from the right way wherein 
there is happiness, joy, and peace. 

The boys grow up. They hate farming : they go to 

119 



I20 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

the city, and join the already crowded trades, professions, 
or occupations ; and, in ninety cases out of one hundred, 
their Hves are failures. 

The girls declare they "won't marry a farmer!" 
(That is one reason why " the boys leave the farm.") 
They go into the factories, shops, and to — God knows 
where ! let us hope he will watch over them, and guide 
their footsteps to something better than that which 
awaits too many who go to the city fresh and pure as 
the air on their native hills, to meet disappointment and 
privation, till at last they sink out of sight, ruined, — 
lost ! 

What is necessary to change all this, is larger crops, 
more and better stock, and consequently greater profits. 
This will give the necessary leisure for improvement, for 
rest, and recreation. 

By adopting the system of " Ensilage," the labor of a 
farm can be so systemized that these opportunities can 
be improved, and the farmer's life become in fact, what it 
has always been in theory, and sometimes in practice, — 
the most independent and honorable of any class. 

Secondly, Since I opened my Silo, and the papers all 
gave more or less accurate and detailed accounts of my 
success in preserving corn-fodder in its green state, I 
have received an immense number of letters from all 
parts of the country, asking me to " please give them a 
little more information ' how ' I did it," &c. Well, I 
have answered several hundred ; I hated to refuse or 
neglect so civil a request from so large a number of the 
very men whom I most respect ; but it had come to this 
pass, that I had got to employ an amanuensis, and devote 
my whole time to diffusing information through the mails, 
or refuse to answer nine-tenths of the inquiries. 

Several hundred years ago they used to diffuse know!- 



CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 121 

edge by the means of manuscript sent to parties desiring 
it ; but it soon struck me that in this present enlightened 
Ensil-age it was not exactly " up to the times ! " I have 
therefore jotted down, as I have had leisure, what I know 
about the system. I feel diffident in thus giving in- 
struction how to proceed, for I know I have much yet to 
learn ; but the farmer who carefully studies this book 
will know a great deal better how to go to work than I 
did when I began ; and my cattle and sheep all told me 
to-day (May 25) that it " was the greatest kind of a suc- 
cess ! " But then, my stock like me, and are doubtless 
partial. 

Next in importance to having the best and cheapest 
food for our animals, is having the best breeds of animals 
to feed it to, so as to obtain the greatest returns. There- 
fore I have added a short description of the herds and 
flocks of "Winning Farm" and "Virginia Stock Farm," 
together with more or less concerning the different 
breeds. I confess that my object is not alto get Jicr a 
benevolent desire to benefit others solely, but is partly 
for the purpose of advertising my horses, cattle, sheep, 
and swine. I have fine stock to sell for breeding-pur- 
poses, — I make a business of raising them. Now, if 
any have followed me thus far through the Book of 
Ensilage, and do not care to read any thing more about 
the animals which are so grateful for the Ensilage the}- 
have eaten and grown fat upon the past winter, to them I 
will say, that, as far as I know, there is no law which will 
compel them to read a single line further than they care 
to. 



PERCHERON HORSES. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE. 



For some time I have been very much interested in con- 
sidering how the common horses of our country might be 
improved. For several years past a mania has seemed to 
possess the American farmer on the subject of horse-racing. 
Speed, not endurance, a lively spurt on the road, not strength 
at the plough and ability to pull a heavy load at a good fast walk, 
have ruled. What the farmers need has been, and is, power- 
ful horses, with sufficient action to take them fifty miles a day 
and return the next, without being knocked up for a week, and 
haul a comfortable carriage, with two or four persons in it, — 
horses that can take a load of produce to market, and come 
home bright and cheerful, and ready for their feed, and a day's 
work on the morrow. There is a surplus of stallions with a 
trotting or running pedigree, and also of those who can trot to 
harness a mile or two quite lively. Horses that can trot in 
forty, or even in thirty, are very nice toys for gentlemen of 
wealth whose fancy is for a fast team, or of leisure, who want 
something with which to kill time ; but for real service and 
practical utility they are of about as much use as the New-York 
Coaching Club's turnouts. 

Therefore, on my way to Elkhart Park, the home of J. D. 



PERCHERON HORSES. i o . 

Gillett, the noted short-horn-cattlc-raiser, of which I shall say 
more hereafter, I stopped one day at Oakland, the home of 
M. W. Dunham, the great Percheron-Norman-horse-importer. 

Mr. Dunham's farm comprises six hundred acres of very 
fertile and beautifully-lying land, in Wayne, 111. I left Chicago 
on an early train, and, after a pleasant ride of thirty-four miles, 
arrived at Wayne. Upon inquiring, I was directed to Oakland 
Stud Farm, distant just one mile, over a beautiful broad avenue 
ornamented by a fine hedge and rows of shade-trees on either 
side. As I was walking along, admiring the broad fields spread 
out before me upon every hand, suddenly I heard the sound of 
a horse's footsteps rapidly approaching. I had hardly time to 
look around before a man passed me, his horse a magnificent- 
looking animal, weighing over 1,500 pounds, and trotting con- 
siderably better than a four-minute gait. I instinctively knew 
that I had seen one of Mr. Dunham's Pcrcherons. I had 
examined his catalogue, filled as it is with beautiful pictures 
of Percheron horses, and, in common with many others, had 
thought the great animal artist, Dewey, had flattered the animals 
he portrayed ; but when that horse so grandly swept by me at 
such tremendous speed, — for a horse of his size, — I mentally 
asked to be forgiven for wronging, in such an ungenerous 
manner, Mr. Dunham, the artist, and the horses themselves. 
This little incident had prepared me, in a measure, for what 
I was to see. 

I found Mr. Dunham superintending the building of a large 
cistern upon a high hill about a quarter of a mile beyond his 
house. Although the hill is at least one hundred feet higher 
than his house, upon the top of it he finds an unfailing supply 
of water, by digging thirty-five or forty feet. The water is 
pumped into the reservoir by a large pump, operated by a 
powerful wind-engine. From the reservoir a two-inch pipe is 
laid to the farm buildings, and distributed in smaller pipes to 
every stable and almost every stall. Mr. Dunham greeted me 
cordially, and at once returned to the stables. While the 
"boys " were getting the horses ready to show, he led the way to 
his new barn, then nearly completed. It is 160 feet long, 52 
feet wide, with 20-feet posts, and contains 10 box-stalls 16 feet 



rERClIERON HORSES. 125 

square, and 10 stalls 16 feet wide by 32 feet long. Each stall 
is sheathed up all around, about six feet high. Above that, to 
the ceiling overhead, the partitions arc made of two-by-two-inch 
pickets, set two inches apart. The object of this i.s, as Mr. 
Dunham expressed it, "for sociability : a horse loves company 
as well as you do, and without it he will not be happy. If he is 
not happy he will not do well ; neither will he behave as well 
when taken out if kept in solitude, for then he is easily excited 
b}'^ other horses." Mr. Dunham has nearly two hundred horses ; 
and all of them, excepting the yearling colts, are kept in box- 
stalls, and only one horse in a stall. The stalls are all from 14 
to 16 feet square, with straw for bedding up to the horses' 
knees. This will give the reader some idea of the immensity 
of the establishment. 

By this time the boys were ready to show some colts. I 
cannot particularize ; but I saw pure-bred two-year-old colts by 
the score, that were as handsome as any picture could be ; clean 
heads, bright, large, intelligent eyes, ears like a thoroughbred, 
and with limbs as clean, yet weighing all the way from 1,300 to 
1,650 pounds each, and, notwithstanding their weight, as quick 
and trappy in their movements as any 900-pound horse. I was 
next shown a number of half and three-quarter bloods ; that is, 
their sires were imported, while their dams or grand-dams were 
common native mares, weighing from 900 to 1,100 pounds each. 
These grades — if I may call them so — were, if possible, mere 
beautiful than the pure-bred colts we had just seen. They 
(two-year-olds) would weigh from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds each, 
being rather lighter in the bone than the pure-bred, but with 
legs as broad and fiat as your hand, with the back tendon 
almost as large as the bone in front, and each cord and sinew 
showing as distinctly as though no hair or skin covered them. 
I was convinced that in these half and three-quarter blood Per- 
cherons I saw the "horse of the future." They have all the 
attributes which a man could ask for in a horse, unless he is a 
fast-horse man, and wants a trotter : they have size and strength, 
plenty of action, beautiful figures, and speed enough for all road 
purposes. Next I was shown a large number of stallions, from 
three-year-olds up to "Success," aged 15 years. I cannot 



126 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

describe them. The illustrations in Mr. Dunham's catalogue, 
and in "The National Stock Journal," do not do them justice. 
They are massive! They are magnificent ! Their weights (and 
no guess-work ; I saw them weighed by the score) ranged from 
1, 600 to 2,160 pounds, and for action they are as quick as 
cats. I must name one, however, " Vidocq " (see cut on oppo- 
site page). He weighs 1,850 pounds ; can trot a mile in four 
minutes ; has as clean a head and ear as any thoroughbred ; 
his feet hardly seem to touch the ground, he picks them up 
so lightly. He fairly divides the honors with " Success," the 
king of the stud. He is a beautiful dapple-gray. Such a back ! 
Such a breast ! Such a neck ! Although only i6\ hands high, 
his head seems almost in the clouds, he carries it so grandly. 

Time for the return train would only allow me a hurried look 
at the yearling colts, brood-mares and their sucking colts. 
Gray is the prevailing color, black comes next, though there 
are occasionally bays and chestnuts. Of course I saw the mare 
" Mignonette," the prize-winner at the Centennial. Her picture 
does not do her justice. Her head is a study ; she weighs over 
2,100 pounds, and moves as lightly and easily as if she weighed 
but half that much. Suffice it to say, that I saw sucking colts 
that would weigh from 800 to 1,000 pounds, and yearling colts 
that would weigh up to 1,460 pounds, and not a clumsy, 
awkward, or mean one in the whole establishment. A man 
to appreciate Mr. Dunham's stud ought to spend at least a 
week with him. I was prepossessed, I confess, in favor of 
Percherons ; but I had no idea I should see such horses, they 
were so much better than I had ever imagined horses of their 
size could be. 

In accordance with the impression received at this visit, I 
resolved to possess at least one thorough-bred Percheron. 
Therefore early this spring I directed my agent in France to 
purchase for me the best Percheron stallion he could procure, 
regardless of price. I have the satisfaction of being able to 
state that my agent writes me that he has secured a prodigy for 
me. I only regret that this book goes to press before he will 
arrive, so that in this edition I am unable to present his por- 
trait. 



I2(S THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

He will make the season this spring at "Winning Farm." 
In the fall he will go to " Virginia Stock Farm," where I have 
thirty-five Canada-bred mares to be served by him, which I 
imported expressly for breeders. (See cut on opposite page.) 

He arrived on the 25th of May, 1880; and to say that I am 
perfectly satisfied with my purchase, is doing him but simple 
justice. He is four years old, i6i hands high, and although 
thin in flesh weighs 1,600 pounds; will easily make an 1,850- 
pound horse when fully matured. He reminds me very much 
of Mr. Dunham's "Vidocq;" his color is a very dark iron- 
gray (slightly showing the dapple), with white mane and tail; 
his ears are as fine as a thoroughbred, and not larger than the 
average 900-pound horse. He carries his head high with beau- 
tiful crest ; his lofty carriage would attract attention anywhere. 
His arm and quarters are unequalled, hood-back, long level 
haunch, extraordinary flank : these are points of excellence, of 
vital importance, which he possesses to a remarkable degree. 
His legs are very clean and free from hair, upon which he 
stands squarely and perfectly. His feet are of the best : when 
in motion the lightness and elasticity of his step, the ease and 
style of his movements, are such as are rarely surpassed in light 
horses. 

In all his attributes, especially his muscular development, 
spirit, and energy, he bears unmistakable evidence of purity of 
blood, through which for untold generations his Arab character- 
istics, improved and adapted to modern wants, have descended. 

He will be allowed to serve a limited number of mares at 
^40, half forfeit. 

Mares from a distance will be kept and carefully cared for at 
%l per week. All accidents and escapes at owner's risk. 



CHAPTER II. 

ORIGIN, HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS, AND PERFORMANCES OF 
PERCHERON-NORMAN HORSES. 

The following information in regard to the origin, charac- 
teristics, and performances of Percheron-Norman horses has 
been kindly furnished by Mr. Dunham : — 

Being extensively engaged in the importation and breeding 
of the Percheron-Norman horse, and a zealous advocate of the 
breed as a means of improving the horses of our country, I feel 
it incumbent upon me to place at the disposal of the public 
what information upon the subject I have obtained through my 
experience, or have been able to glean from historical research. 
In pursuance of that object, I will give some facts in a con- 
densed form, bearing upon their characteristics, origin, breeding, 
tests of speed, bottom ; also their introduction into this coun- 
try, with the success they have attained as a cross upon our 
common mares. 

For the facts relating to the early history of the race, I have 
drawn largely upon the justly-famed works of M. Huys, a cele- 
brated French author (unquestioned authority), which I trust 
may be read with interest and prove of value to those interested 
in the improvement and production of a better class of large 
horses. 

The question of the necessity of improvement in that direc- 
tion is now rapidly becoming apparent to everybody. But years 
ago, when the country was flooded with small stallions of every 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PERCIIERON. 131 

breed and under every name ; when the trotting fever was at 
its height, and thousands of farmers were pursuing, with an 
eagerness amounting to a passion, the vain fantasy of becom- 
ing successful breeders of fast trotters ; when, under the baleful 
influences of the popular mania, the draught breeds were wholly 
ignored, — I entered into business, and became a firm advocate 
and a breeder in a small way, of the draught stock, believing 
that a re-action in public sentiment must take place ; that the 
country must recover from this general intoxication ; that the 
farmers would become disgusted by constant failure, and, aban- 
doning the delusive idea of breeding fast trotters, would regain 
their senses ; and, with the recovery of their wonted judgment, 
the agricultural and draught horse would succeed to their right- 
ful supremacy. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE PERCHERON-NORMAN HORSE. 

They are usually fifteen and a half to sixteen and a half hands 
high ; but some of the largest varieties are occasionally seven- 
teen hands. In temperament they are sanguine, mixed in vari- 
able proportions with the musco-lymphatic. In color they are 
nearly always varying from white through all the different 
shades to black, of which color there are a few. In proportion 
to their predominance, these temperaments constitute types 
which may be classed as follows : — 

First, The light or smaller type, in which the sanguine tem- 
perament predominates. This type is used exclusively for the 
road and saddle. 

Second, The draught type, in which the lymphatic tempera- 
ment prevails, and which are used for draught alone. 

Third, The intermediate, between these two classes, are 
greatly in excess in numbers of either one of the two preced- 
ing, and in a great degree combine the qualities of the other 
two ; the nervous, sanguine temperament of one, with increased 
weight and physical development of the other. The more per- 
fect animals of the breed may be described as follows : — 

With fine style ; nostrils large and well dilated ; eye good 
size, mild and expressive ; forehead broad and full ; car short 
and fine ; neck rather short, but nicely filled out ; withers usu- 



132 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



ally high ; shoulders long and nicely sloped ; breast broad and 
deep ; body well rounded ; croup horizontal, broad, and flat on 
the best varieties; tail attached high; joints short and firm; 
feet always good ; skin very thin, and hair of the finest quality ; 
mane abundant and usually fine and silky. To remarkable 
strength, to vigor which does not degenerate, to a conforma- 
tion that does not exclude elegance, it joins docility, mildness, 
patience, honesty, great kindness, excellent health, and hardy 
and elastic temperament. Its movements are rapid and easy ; 
it possesses uncommon endurance, both when worked hard or 
when forced, for unusual time, to maintain any of its natural 
gaits. // possesses the inestimable quality of moving fast with 
heavy loads ; and in its native country it is particularly valued 
for its remarkable precocity, producing more by its work at two 
years old than the cost of its keeping. By its nature, it inherits 
a real aptness for labor ; and its mild disposition and well-bal- 
anced brain makes it always reliable, and seldom subject to 
nervous excitement. Their excellent temper is the result of 
ages of kindness and gentle familiarity of those in whose hands 
they have been bred. (See cut of Eldorado opposite.) 

Their remarkable soundness (a cause of lasting jealousy 
among the breeders of other races) has been established by the 
greatest care in breeding for many generations, until defects, 
such as ring-bone, curb, and spavin, are not even known by 
name in the country where they are raised. 

ORIGIN OF THE PERCHERON HORSE. 

Some attribute to him an Arabian ancestry; while others, 
without positively assigning to him so noble an origin, hold him 
to be deeply impregnated with Arabian blood. 

Eugene Perrault, one of the most extensive and skilful deal- 
ers in all Europe, has frequently remarked, that, of all the races 
of horses, none were so interesting to him as the Percheron ; 
and that, judging from his appearance and quality, he was 
convinced he is a genuine Arab, modified in form by cli- 
mate and the peculiar labor that he has been for ages obliged 
to perform. There is not, however, in any written history posi- 
tive evidence that the Percheron is a pure Arab, but it is easy 



134 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

by fair historical deduction to prove they are in fact. It is well 
known, that after the defeat of the famous Saracen chief Abde- 
rame by Charles Martel on the plains of Vouille, the magnifi- 
cent cavalry of the enemy fell into the hands of the victors, 
and the horses upon which they were mounted were, like them- 
selves, from the East. In a division of the spoils a large num- 
ber fell to the men of La Perche, Orleans, and Normandy, who 
composed a greater portion of the French forces. These 
horses must of necessity have left in their progeny indelible 
traces of their blood. La Perche also furnished her contingent 
of fighting men for the crusades ; and the chronicles cite sev- 
eral counts of Bellesme, Mortagne, and Nogent, barons and 
gentlemen of that province, with many of their vassals, who 
made pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The Abbe Fait, in a let- 
ter directed to the Congress Mortagne, July i6, 1843, and in his 
great work upon La Perche, cites in this connection a Lord 
of Montdoubleau, Geoffroy IV., and Rotrou, Count of La 
Perche, as having brought back from Palestine several stallions, 
which were used, and their progeny most carefully preserved. 
The limited number of sires, their incomparable beauty and 
great superiority, must have led to the in-and-in breeding so 
much deprecated by most breeders of our time, and by which 
the qualities of the sires became indelibly fixed upon their 
progeny. It is doubtless a fact that the crusaders from France 
brought back with them on their return more or less of the 
Eastern blood, which they had learned to appreciate on the 
plains of Palestine. It has not, however, been preserved else- 
where ; and that Perche is so fortunate as to be able to show 
visible traces of it after so long a time has elapsed, should 
stimulate them to its careful preservation. We therefore see 
that for antiquity the Percheron yields to no other French race ; 
and it is conceded beyond question that the soil that has nour- 
ished them for so many generations is one of the best in France 
for developing to their highest state of perfection their physical 
forces. 

Under the feudal rule Perche must have been an equestrian 
country, in those times of continued war and surprises, and 
horses suited to that purpose were an absolute necessity. The 



HOW THE PERCHERON WAS MODIFIED. 135 

horses at that time must of course have been light, but still j^os- 
sessing within themselves the same characteristics which tlicv 
now present. The universal tradition of the whole country 
goes to prove this fact. 

HOW THE PERCHERON OF FORMER TIMES WAS MODIFIED. 

As we have said, the race doubtless comes from the Arab ; 
but how has it been separated from its original type, and how 
has it lost its Arabian character } All equine races have been 
greatly changed by climatic effects, — by the condition of the 
country, at different periods, in which they were bred. The 
inav.guration of peaceful habits made an agricultural and draught 
horse of the horse formerly used for the saddle and war. But 
the Percherons have been greatly modified by other causes than 
this. The contact with the breeds of Western and Northern 
France has modified them in a great degree. This intrusion 
of the heavy draught type has been vigorously opposed by many 
of the nobles of the country, who have continued to introduce 
and use numerous of the Arabian stallions at different times. 
We see towards 1760, under the administration of the Marquis 
of Briddges, manager of the stables of Pin, all the large num- 
ber of Arab stallions that this establishment owned were 
put at the disposition of the Count of Mallart, for use at his 
mare-stables of Coesme, near Bellesme ; and years after we 
find, at the same chateau of Coesme, the grandsons of those old 
admirers of the Arabian, with two Arab stallions, " Godolphin " 
and " Gallipoli," both of which proved valuable stock-getters, 
— both gray, — which once more gave tone and ardor to the 
Percheron race in that vicinity. Yet these efforts on the part 
of the nobles of this district, to perpetuate and improve the 
Percheron by the introduction of stallions whose tendency was 
to decrease the size, met with decided opposition by the peas- 
antry farmers of the country, who were using all means within 
their power to increase the size of their stock, to meet the 
demands that were springing up under the impulses of the new 
civilization. They not only resorted to the use of the largest 
stallions to be found in Perche to secure that object, but brought 
many from neighboring departments, which hastened the desired 



136 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

development of the draught varieties of Perche, thus establishing 
a complete modification of the primitive horses of ancient 
Perche, and giving to the world a breed of horses that, for rapid 
draught, have no equal. 

HOW THE PERCHERON HORSES ARE BRED AND REARED. 

There is probably no country in the world where the same 
method of breeding is adopted that is practised in the Percheron 
district. The division of the sexes is the greatest peculiarity. 
One portion of the country contains the mares, and produces 
the colts, while another section buys and rears them. 

To whatever class the mares belong, whether small or large 
or medium, they are expected to breed every year : failing to do 
so, they are sold. During gestation they work constantly. A 
few days' rest before and after foaling is the only time lost. 
Her work pays a large percentage above her keep and the 
interest on her cost. At five or six months old the colts are 
weaned and sold, and taken into the interior upon the rich pas- 
ture-lands of Mauves, Pin, Regmalard, Carbon, Lougny, Reveil- 
lore, Courgeron, St. Langis, Villiers, Courgeoust, &c., and for 
one year remain unproductive. In the winter time they are 
provided with hay, and well stabled, and during the fine weather 
are turned out to graze. In fact, they are rather poorly fed, for 
the cause that they are yet unproductive, and they feel the effect. 
Their hardest time is soon gone by, and work softens their lot. 
They are kept in this manner until they are about a year and a 
half old, and then put to work ; four or five colts usually put 
together to do the work of two good horses. They are now 
better fed and better taken care of, and the improvement is very 
perceptible. Their owners seem to enjoy viewing the progress 
of their development. There is probably no place where the 
people as a whole take such deep interest, and appear to have 
so much love for horses, as in this small district of Perche. In 
travelling through the country, one cannot but admire the skill 
and patience used in working the young animals, and is aston- 
ished at the vigor and power they display for colts of their age. 
When they are three years old, there is a ready market for them 
on the plains of Beauce, to work the soft, light soil. They have 



BREEDING THE PERCH ERON. 137 

thus been worked one year, fed but little grain, and doing enough 
light work to pay for their keeping. This early work, which 
would be injurious under bad management, proves decidedly 
beneficial in the hands of good horsemen. 

As we have remarked, the Beauce farmer is a ready buyer, 
when they arrive at three years of age. On the plains there is 
a large amount of work to be performed, but the nature of the 
soil renders it very easy. The people live mostly in villages ; 
and the fields are distant from one another, making a rapid gait 
absolutely necessary. They must be quick, active horses, for 
the acreage of land to be tilled is very great, and the work must 
be done promptly. The labor is very severe ; but they are well 
fed, and the best of care is taken of them. They are used in 
this way one or two years, when they are sold to the express 
and omnibus companies, or to the contractors, wagoners, or 
builders of Paris, according as they seem fit for the different 
kinds of work. Thus we see a breed of horses of the highest 
economical and practical utility, the colts of which are raised 
at a moderate cost, their work paying for their keeping. The 
system practised in rearing them gives to them the most per- 
fect physical development, and makes the Percheron what he 
always has been, the best rapid draught-horse in the world, 
and will always continue to be, unless the admirable qualities 
they possess lead to their future degenei"ation. 

The success of the Percheron race has been remarkable. All 
departments and all nations w4sh to procure it. The prices of 
the choicest stallions have increased so rapidly in the past few 
years, that they have doubled and trebled in value. The author- 
ities have attempted to hinder emigration of their best stallions, 
by offering large annual prizes for the choicest animals that 
were retained for service in that country. The project, how- 
ever, had a contrary effect from what was expected. The prizes 
served as signs to the foreign buyers, who came to France 
to purchase the choicest animals, and no surer guaranty than 
the prize could be had. The owners of such horses cannot 
resist the almost fabulous prices offered for their stallions ; 
and thus disappears, year by year, the flower of their stallions 
and brood-mares. The Percheron breeders are reaping the 



138 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

benefits of the present, without thinking what will be the 
effect in the future. 

SPEED AND ENDURANCE OF THE PERCIIERON. 

One of the qualities of this breed of horses, and which has 
acquired for it a universal reputation, is fast trotting while 
drawing a heavy load ; but it would be an error to suppose that 
this ability to trot fast makes it an equal in every respect to 
the trotting breeds of the present day. The trotters draw very 
little, but have a long stride ; and, as regards mere speed, there is 
no comparison. The specialty of the Percheron — rapid draught 
— has its limits ; and it is these limits that I wish to make known 
by numerous examples officially reported. What the Percherons 
do in the diligences, mail and post coaches, is known to every 
foreign traveller, and it is useless to enlarge upon it. From one 
relay to another, drawing not less than two and often three 
thousand pounds, in all kinds of weather, over hilly roads, they 
make their three leagues an hour and sometimes four ; but this 
is 7ie plus ultra. What they do in the omnibuses, the world that 
visits Paris sees only to admire, and forms one of the greatest 
attractions of the Percheron horse to the observing stranger. 

We will now turn our attention to the trials made upon their 
trotting tracks. The places most frequented are those of Illiers, 
Courtalain, Montdoubleau, and Mortagne ; and in order to be 
impartial it is necessary to state that the tracks, all but the one 
at Mortagne, are ploughed fields, hard in dry weather but cut 
up in wet times, and that the track at Mortagne is badly located, 
having three steep inclines up and down inside of the mile, and 
the horses that have done best elsewhere have failed on this 
track, and it has taken a longer time to go the distance. To 
this circumstance is attributed the low averages made upon that 
track, but it also shows the courage of the animals. When a 
colt of two and a half years of age — there were several of this 
age — can accomplish his task by going two or three times 
around this track, there is a reasonable certainty of there being 
the elements in him for the making of a valuable horse. The 
most of the horses are trotted under the saddle, as their vehicles 
are of the most cumbersome character, and utterly unfitted to 
trot a horse in. 



SPEED AND ENDURANCE OF THE PERCHERON. 139 

The following shows the results of one hundred and eighty- 
nine matches officially reported, and two trials to prove bottom, 
likewise certified to, and will give an average of what the best 
Percherons arc capable of doing. 

In order to be strictly impartial, the slowest and fastest time 
made is given. 

UNDER THE SADDLE ONE MILE AND A QUARTER TWENTY- 
NINE RESULTS. 

The best two are those of "Julie" at Montdoubleau ; time, 3 
min. 50 sec. 

The poorest two results are those of "Vidocq" at Mortagne ; 
time, 7 min. and 37 sec. : and of *' Lansquernet," same place ; 
time, 7 min. 48 sec. 

The average time of twenty-nine recorded trials is 4 min. 12 
sec. 

ONE AND FIVE-SIXTHS MILES THIRTY-ONE RESULTS. 

The best two are those of " Valliante " at Mortagne ; 4 min. 
38 sec: and "Julie" at Montdoubleau; 6 min. and 14 sec. 

The poorest two are those of "Mouche" at Mortagne; time, 
9 min. 18 sec: and of " Biche," same place ; 8 min. 30 sec. 

The average time of thirty-one trials, 6 min. 40 sec. 

TWO MILES FORTY RESULTS. 

The best two are those of "Cocotte," at Illiers ; time, 6 min. 
5-2 sec: and "Sarah," same place; time, 6 min. 2 sec. 

The two poorest are those of "Balzane" at Illiers; time, 9 
min. 40 sec: and of "Renaud," same place; time, 10 min. 30 
sec 

The average time of forty trials is about 7 min. 20 sec. 

TWO AND A HALF MILES SIXTY-FIVE RESULTS. 

The best two are those of "Sarah " at Langou ; time, 7 min. 
35 sec: and same at Mortagne ; time, 7 min. and 40 sec. 

The poorest are those of " Marmotte " at Mortagne ; time, 13 
min. 26 sec: and of "Julie," at Courtalain ; time, 11 min. 30 
sec. 



140 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

Average time of sixty-five trials, 9 min, 15 sec. 

Two and three-fifths miles were made at Illiers by "Bichette," 
in 12 min. 15 sec. 

Two and five-sixths miles were made by same, at same place, 
and gave an average of 11 min. 30 sec, in three successive 
heats. 

Three and two-fifths miles were made by " Champion," at 
Illiers, in 12 min. 

HORSES TO HARNESS TWO MILES — EIGHT RESULTS. 

The best two are those of " Achille," at Illiers ; time, 7 min. 
17 sec: and "Julie," same place ; time, 7 min. 40J sec 

The poorest two are those of " Campionette," at Illiers ; time, 
7 min. 53 sec: and "Bichette," same place ; time, 8 min. 13 sec. 

The average of eight trials is about 7 min. and 36 sec 

TWO AND A HALF MILES FOURTEEN RESULTS. 

The best two are those of " Vigoreux," at Illiers ; time, 8 min. 
30 sec: and "Bibe," at Mortagne ; time, 9 min. 54 sec. 

The poorest two are those of "Bichette," at Courtalain, in 11 
min. 30 sec, and of " Artagan," at Mortagne, in 11 min. 55 sec. 

TWO AND THREE-FIFTHS MILES LOADED. 

Two trials were made at Rouen, by "Decidee," the first 
drawing 386 pounds in 9 min. 21 sec, the second time drawing 
408 pounds in 10 min. 49 sec. 

TRIALS OF ENDURANCE AND SPEED. 

A gray mare, bred by M. Boulavois, at Almenasches (Ormc), 
and belonging to M. Montreauil, horse-dealer at Alengon, per- 
formed the following match : Harnessed to a travelling-tilbury, 
she started from Bernay to go to Alengon, a distance of fifty- 
five and three-fifths miles, over a hilly and difficult road, reach- 
ing there in 4 h. 24 min. This mare is still living, and now 
belongs to M. Biuson, hotel-keeper at Lees (Orne), where she 
still draws the omnibus plying between the hotel and station. 

A gray mare seven years old, belonging to M. Cousturur, at 
Fleury sur Andelle (Eure), harnessed to a tilbury, travelled 



THE PERCH E RON IN AMERICA. 141 

fifty-eight miles and back, on two consecutive days, going at a 
trot and witiiout being touched with a whip. This was over the 
road from Lyons la Fosette to Point Andmere and back through 
a hilly country. The following time was made: The first day 
the distance was trotted in 4 h. i min. 35 sec; the second day, 
4 h. I min. 30 sec. The last thirteen and three-fourths milcs^ 
were made in one hour, although the mare was obliged to pass 
her stable, at the forty-first mile, to finish the distance. 

THE PERCHERON IN AMERICA. 

The preceding pages give a fair idea of the Percheron horse 
in his native country, — his value as a draught-horse, and his 
capabilities upon the road. 

But what is more necessary for us to know is, whether it is 
adapted to ^?/r wants; whether it can reproduce with a certainty 
its own valuable qualities in its progeny, when bred to the com- 
mon mares of the country. 

For evidence upon this point we can only look to the past, 
and base our judgment upon the results obtained by actual 
trial. For that purpose I invited attention to the following 
brief retrospect of their history in America : 

The settlement of Canada by the French is the date at which 
the introduction of the French race into North America can be 
placed. In seeking homes in the New World, they brought 
with them their own domestic animals, foremost among which 
were their horses, they being a prime necessity for the cultiva- 
tion of the soil upon which they were in the future to depend 
for their support and prosperity. The change from the salu- 
brious climate of sunny France to the cold, bleak hills of the 
lower St. Lawrence, must have been a severe one. But their 
natural constitutional vigor and hardihood sustained them ; 
although the rigor of the winters, their scanty fare, and the 
innumerable hardships they were forced to endure, tended to 
greatly reduce their size, and increase their hardiness, establish- 
ing for them the reputation as the toughest of all breeds, until 
''tough as a Canadian pony'' became a common term all over 
the country in expressing the superiative of hardiness. They 
were no doubt for many years kept pure ; but the conquest by 



142 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

the English, and the consequent introduction of the EngHsh 
horse, soon led to a fusion of the two breeds to some extent, — 
with the most happy results, — and many of the most famous 
horses of our day are traceable to that cross. In fact, the great- 
grandsire of "Lulu," acknowledged the fastest trotting mare 
now living, was an imported French horse, and many other 
famous ones of the same origin. 

I find the following in regard to the Canadian horse, written 
in 1850 by Henry S. Randall, a well-known American agricul- 
turist : — 

"Found in the Canadian Provinces, and somewhat in the 
Northern United States, he is mainly of French descent. They 
are long-lived, easily kept, and an exceedingly Jiardy race, making 
good farm and draught horses when sufficiently large. 

" In form they display in a marked manner the characteristics 
of the Norman race. So, too, in their general qualities, though 
considerably smaller. Stallions of this breed have, in various 
instances of late, been introduced into New York and other 
Northern States, to cross upon our common mares. The results 
have been decidedly satisfactory, particularly in giving compact- 
ness and vigor of constitution where the dam does not excel in 
those particulars. A stallion imported a few years since from 
Canada, by Mr. John Legg, has got several hundred colts, 
which, when broken and sold, averaged considerably above the 
prices of the horses of the country. They are almost invariably 
fair roadsters and excellent farm-horses. This cross is more 
and more finding favor among our farmers." 

Though many stallions were brought from Canada to the 
United States at early dates, yet their importation direct from 
France did not begin until 1839, when Mr. Harris, of Morris- 
town, N.J., introduced the breed. From a letter bearing date 
April 6, 1850, written by Mr. Harris to a friend who made some 
inquiries regarding the success of his enterprise, I extract the 
following : — 

"These horses first came under my observation on a journey 
through France in 183 1. I was struck by the immense power 



BENEFIT OF THE PERCHERON-CROSS. 143 

displayed by them in drawing the heavy diligences of the 
country at a pace which, although not as rapid as the stage- 
coach travelling of England, yet such a pace — say from five to 
nine miles per hour — the lowest rate of which, I do not hesitate 
to say, would in a short time kill the English horse if placed 
before the same load. In confirmation of this opinion, I refer 
you to an article upon the Norman horse, written by an 
Englishman, and published in * The British Quarterly Journal 
of Agriculture,' in which the writer, in giving an account of the 
origin of the horse, which agrees in tracing it to Arabian 
ancestry, says: — 

" ' The horses of Normandy are a capital race for hard work 
and scanty fare. I have never seen such horses at the collar, 
under the diligence, the post-carriage, the cumbrous and heavy 
voiture or cabriolet for one or two horses, or on the farm. They 
are enduring and energetic beyond description ; with their neck 
cut to the bone, they flinch not. They put forth all their efforts 
at the voice of their driver or at the dread sound of the whip. 
They keep their condition tvJien other horses ivoiild die of neglect 
and hard tjratment. A better cross for some of our horses 
cannot be imagined than those of Normandy.' 

" My own impression being fortified by such authority, from 
such a source, where we look for little praise of any thing 
French, and also from various other authorities, both written 
and verbal, I made up my mind to return to France at an early 
day and select a stallion at least, as an experiment in crossing 
upon the light mares of New Jersey. My intentions were un- 
avoidably delayed until 1839, when I went seriously to work to 
purchase one stallion and two mares. The stallion and one 
mare died before reaching home. I at once returned, and 
bought two stallions and one more mare, and reached home 
with them in safety. One of the stallions I got only one 
season's service from. The other one has now made ten sea- 
sons, with an average of about eighty mares the season. And, 
if their success is any evidence of the value of the breed, I can 
state that, of over four hundred colts produced, I have never yet 
heard of one that would not readily bring one hundred dollars, 
and many of them much higher prices. You can therefore 



J 44 BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

judge ot the benefits that have accrued from their service. I 
have yet to learn of one worthless colt ; nor have I heard of 
one that is spavined, ringboned, curbed, or that has any of those 
defects which render utterly useless so many of the fine-bred 
colts of the present day. 

" In reply to your query as to how they cross with thorough- 
bred mares, I will say I have never bred to strictly pure thor- 
oughbreds, there being none here ; but those mares nearest 
approaching it have produced the cleanest, neatest, and hand- 
somest colts, though hardly large enough to bring the highest 
prices. Those I know of that cross are excellent performers. 

"To the question, 'What is the result of the cross with differ- 
ent styles of marcs, as regards shape } ' As regards shape, you 
may depend upon the predominance of the form of the horse 
in nine cases out of ten. Indeed, I have seen only one colt I 
could not instantly recognize from the form. 

" I still hold to the opinion I expressed to you years ago, that 
our common horses will be materially improved by this cross. 
The colts have higher action than their dams, and generally 
keep their feet better under them. 

" I may safely say they are universally docile and kind, at 
the same time spirited and lively. They break in without any 
difficulty. 

" As regards their speed, I do not know of any that can be 
called fast horses, though many smart ones among ordinary 
road-horses. 

" I am decidedly of the opinion that we cannot do better, if 
we wish to produce, in reasonable time, a most valuable race 
of horses for the farm and road, than to breed from a full-sized 
Percheron stallion." (See cut on opposite page of half-bred 
stallion "Napoleon III.") 

This importation by Mr. Harris was not at once followed by 
many others. Not until 185 1 do we have any record of any 
other; when Mr. Fullington, from Ohio, while travelling in 
France for his health, became so favorably impressed by their 
valuable qualities exhibited upon the diligence and in the mam- 
moth carts of Paris, that he determined to secure one before 



|iii|.]ili||i|i|lll!!llllllll!ll!ll!llll!l)ll)llllllih 
'Uik' I ill 




PERCHERONS IN AMERICA. 1 47 

his return home, and try the experiment of the cross upon the 
common mares used by him upon his own farm. He made 
a purchase of a gray three-year-old, compactly built, deep 
shoulders, long quarters, rump flat and square, back short, 
body round, head medium size, good eyes, ears small and erect, 
neck rather short, with heavy crest. He was heavy built, with 
considerable hair on his legs, fiery, muscular, with action one 
would scarce expect to see in a horse of his build and weight. 
He named him "Louis Napoleon." When matured, his height 
was sixteen hands; weight 1,650 pounds. He shipped him 
upon a sail-vessel ; and in the usual time, without material acci- 
dent, he was landed in New York, and arrived safely at Mr. 
Fullington's farm. He attracted very little attention at first, 
being in bad plight from the effect of the voyage. Being only 
partially developed and poor, with mane and tail almost all 
rubbed off, he no doubt presented a decidedly rough appearance. 
At least, Mr. Fullington and his horse became the subjects for 
many jokes. 

He, however, had faith in his value, and at once set about 
proving it. He served all his own mares and a few others, and 
then impatiently awaited the results ; for he knew that the 
impression made by the colts was the hinge upon which the 
reputation of his horse would turn. The results proved more 
satisfactory than his most sanguine expectations had conceived. 
They were remarkably uniform in build, blocky and active, and 
at four months old were complete little horses, just filling the 
eyes of the people. His mark was made. He soon sold a half 
interest in " Louis Napoleon " to Mr. Cushman for one thousand 
dollars, who afterwards bought the other half for a like amount, 
and brought him to Illinois in 1856, where he was afterwards 
purchased by the Messrs. Dillon, — the present importers and 
breeders of the stock, — to whom the people of the West are 
greatly indebted for the very energetic manner in which they 
brought before them the value of this breed, by the continued 
exhibition of the stock at the fairs throughout the country. 
From the very first "Louis Napoleon" established a reputation 
for himself as a remarkable breeder; demonstrated the value of 
the French cross beyond a cavil, and laid the foundation of the 
fame to which that breed has since attained. 




" St. Lawrence." 



Sire, Percheron Stallion, imported by the Vercheres Co. Stock Co., Canada. 

Dam, St. Lawrence and Clydesdale. Age, 5 years; weight, 1540 lbs; color, dark 
brown. 

He will stand permanently at "Virginia Stock Farm," Sussex Co., Va. Terms, 
$20.00, payable in cash or secured notes at time of service. 



PERCHERONS IN AMERICA. 14c) 

The colts of "Louis Napoleon " gave such unbounded satis- 
faction in Ohio, — being very uniform in build, so gentle and 

tractable, yet spirited and active, so hardy and easily kept, 

that they determined to secure more of the same breed ; and 
within a short time several stallions were imported from France 
into that locality, all of which proved excellent breeders. One 
of them, belonging to Dr. Brown, known as " Pleasant Valley 
Bill," and another belonging to a company, and called " None- 
such," or " Old Bob," strongly contested the laurels of " Louis 
Napoleon " for the supremacy as breeders. 

Another stallion, named " Rollin," imported by Gordon & 
Martin in 1856, was purchased by James L. Owen and others, 
of Illinois, for their own use. He died in his prime, but left a 
lasting impression upon the horses of that locality. Although 
Illinois had become renowned for her fine cattle, and had made 
rapid strides toward the improvement of her work-horses by 
the introduction of such horses as "Louis Napoleon," "Rollin," 
and many other large horses of different varieties, — among 
which were "Oakley Samson " and "John Bull," both imported 
English draught-horses, — no importations of Percheron horses 
from France had taken place prior to the spring of 1868, when 
the initiatory step was taken by the importation of "Success"* 
and " French Emperor," and a new field of enterprise was 
opened which has since assumed such grand proportions, and 
placed the State of Illinois so far in advance of every other 
section of this country in the breeding of draught-horses. 

These two horses were imported by W. J. Edwards, and pur- 
chased at a cost of six thousand dollars (;$6,ooo) by the Fletcher 
Norman Horse Company, organized by M. W. Fletcher, one of 
the earliest advocates and breeders of large horses in Illinois. 

The company consisted of farmers of this vicinity, — myself 
among the number, — who were determined to secure for their 
own breeding the very best stallions that could be obtained. 
The plan proved a success ; and for several years the members 
of the company were enabled to breed to two as good imported 
stallions as there were in Illinois, for about the same price 
charged for common scrub horses of the country, allowing them 
ten per cent interest on their investment. As the prices 




Success." 



PERCHERONS IN AMERICA. 



I^ I 



realized upon the colts were more than double (at the same age) 
of colts from any stallion ever before owned in the county, the 
benefits were too apparent to be disputed, even by those invet- 
erate "croakers" with which every community is encumbered. 

The many advantages of this plan are obvious. With a 
small outlay by each individual member, the stallions are pur- 
chased, cheap service of valuable animals secured, and in case 
of accident or death the loss falls so light upon each that it is 
not felt. Besides this, the united influence of the neighborhood 
insures general patronage and success from the start. For com- 
munities that are inclined to do something for themselves in 
the way of improvement, there is no better method. 

"SUCCESS " 

was purchased by me at a cost of $3,300, and took the place at 
the head of my stud that he now occupies, — a position that his 
incomparable breeding qualities eminently entitled him to fill, 
and which he has successfully held against more than a hundred 
imported rivals, the flower of the best stud-stables of France, 
many, very many of them, larger, finer, and more perfect ani- 
mals than himself. But those broad, flat quarters ; deep, mass- 
ive shoulders ; that nicely-rounded body ; those clean, flat, 
powerfully-muscled legs ; that beautiful head and lofty crest 
from which falls that mass of silky mane reaching to the knee ; 
that spirit and mildness of temper, — could not be forgotten. 
And the unerring certainty with which he transmitted those 
qualities to his progeny has earned for him a place in the popu- 
lar favor which i;0 untried horse, of however fine form, powerful 
build, or general perfection, can dispossess him of. 

The stallions I have mentioned are the ones upon whose 
success the popularity of the breed was established ; which has 
caused the rapid development of the importing business, which 
would be difficult to follow ; which will be understood upon 
perusal of the list of animals on the following pages, imported 
by me since 1872. 

My object in thus tracing the importations of the Percheron 
horse into the United States, and noticing the results of their 
breeding, has been for the purpose of aiding us in determining 



''SUCCESS.' 



153 



that its success rests upon the absolute merit demonstrated by 
years of actual trial without a single failure. As, step by step, 
they have merged from the obscurity of a single importation, 
each succeeding one placing new evidence of its merit as a 
breeder upon record, until, with a steady advance from county 
to county, from State to State, from ocean to ocean, its fame has 
been heralded, its success admitted, and to-day it stands before 
the country the most popular of all breeds of heavy horses, and 
will remain so, too, as long as a large, active horse, combining 
spirit, energy, hardiness, with the greatest docility, capable of 
performing whatever work may be placed upon him as a gen- 
eral-purpose horse or one for draught, shall be prized. 

I have often been attacked, and even ridiculed, through the 
columns of the press, for the stress I place upon the actioji of 
my horses. I have no sympathy with those gentlemen of ex- 
treme views, who think a horse must trot in 2.25 or 2.30, or 
weigh from 2,000 to 2,500 lbs., and not be able to move off a 
walk. I value a horse, of whatever weight he may be, whether 
1,000 lbs. or twice that, for what of horse there may be in him ; 
and if he cannot show a good, easy trotting action as well as a 
good walk, and that, too, in a good, lively, spirited manner, he 
has no attractions for me. I want no automatons, no wooden 
horses. 

And to all who may chance to visit Oaklawn, I will say, that, 
without encroaching on the prerogatives of the trotters, I will 
show large horses whoso, performances as well as appearance will 
please. 



COTSWOLD SHEEP. 



CHAPTER I. 

WINNING FLOCK, LATE MAPLESHADE FLOCK. 

I HAVE long been an admirer of Cotswold sheep, and have 
been anxious to possess the best flock in America. It had long 
been conceded that the Mapleshade flock of Moreton Farm, 
Rochester, N.Y., belonging to Joseph Harris, was superior to 
any other flock of Cotswold sheep in America ; and Mr. Harris 
says they are better than any imported Cotswolds he has ever 
seen. They have repeatedly taken the first prizes at the New- 
York State fairs when there was great competition. 

Mr. Harris is the well-known author of "Walks and Talks," 
" Harris on the Pig," " Talks on Manures ; " and his last, and I 
had almost said best, work is his unique and original "Seed 
Catalogue," which everybody ought to send for on account of 
the useful and practical suggestions which are thickly strewn 
upon every page. He would, however, rather you would order 
a few seeds ^\\h which to try his suggestions, than to ask for 
the catalogue solely for the valuable advice, " How to Make 
Good Crops," which it contains. I have read the catalogue, 
and tried his seeds, and they are both good. 

When his catalogue came out last year, offering every sheep 
in the flock, I decided that the "Mapleshade flock," or rather 
all the cream of it, was coming east. "Westward the star of 

>54 



WINNING FLOCK, LATE MAPLESIIADE FLOCK. 155 

empire takes its way;" but eastward the champion Cotswold 
flock has come, and now they are the "Winning flock." 

The following history of this remarkable flock of sheep is 
from the pen of Joseph Harris himself. 

COTSWOLD SHEEP. — MAPLESHADE FLOCK. 

This justly celebrated flock of high-bred Cotswold sheep was 
brought to Moreton Farm, seven miles west of Rochester, 
N.Y., on the Buffalo road, in 1869. It was imported by J. D. 
Wing, of Dutchess County, N.Y., from the best breeders in 
England. 

A careful record has been kept, and a complete history and 
pedigree of every sheep in the flock can be given. It is 
believed that there is no Cotswold flock of sheep in the world 
that is better bred, and certainly no Cotswold sheep whose 
pedigree is more complete or more thoroughly established. 
Every sheep in the flock has a pedigree tracing back, on the 
side of both sire and dam, to the best and most distinguished 
and reliable breeders in England. 

Large prices were paid, and great pains taken to select the 
very best and purest-bred Cotswold sheep that could be found 
in England ; and, as stated before, a perfect record has been 
kept of each individual sheep since they were brought to this 
country. The sheep are all numbered with C. H. Dana's 
metallic tags in the ear. The date of service is kept ; the date 
of birth, and the zveight of each lamb at birth, and at different 
times afterwards, are all systematically kept ; also the weight 
of every sheep every year at shearing time, and the weight of 
the wool. 

The wool has also at several times been examined by experts, 
and their opinion of the relative value of the fleece obtained as 
a guide. 

The sheep are not bred merely for "fancy points," but for 
really intrinsic merit in form, early maturity, vigorous constitu- 
tion, fattening properties, and qjiality of wool. The flock is in 
perfect health. The sheep are thoroughly acclimated ; they 
have not been forced ; they arc kept for use, for real value, and 
not for show ; they are not housed in winter ; they have sheds 



156 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

to run under, but spend most of the time in the open air. If 
well fed, and provided with dry quarters under foot, there are 
no sheep that will stand exposure to our severe winters better 
than the Cotswolds. 

The Cotswold ewes are good breeders and good nurses. 
They frequently have two strong lambs, and occasionally three, 
at a birth. I have never had a pure-bred Cotswold ewe in the 
flock that would not breed. We let the ewes have their first 
lambs when two years old, and they frequently continue to be 
good breeders till ten years old. 

The Cotswolds are the hardiest of all the English breeds of 
sheep. 

Of all well-established breeds, the Cotswolds are the largest. 

The celebrated experiments of Lawes and Gilbert proved 
beyond all question that the Cotswolds produced more mutton 
and more wool than any other breed. In other words, they 
gained more rapidly both in fleece and carcass than any other 
breed ; and not only this, but they gained more in proportion to 
the food consumed than any other breed. 

There is a great demand for Cotswold rams, and it is rapidly 
on the increase from year to year. Last year a Cotswold 
breeder wrote me that the demand in the Southern States was 
so large that he had not been able to fill more than half his 
orders. 

The fact is, there are very few breeders of pui-e-hred Cots- 
wold sheep, either in England, Canada, or the United States. 

Last spring Gen. Horace Capron of Washington received an 
order from the Japanese Government for a hundred and thirty- 
eight Cotswold ewes and four rams, and for fifty-six merino 
ewes and two rams. He found no difficulty in getting merinos, 
but it was by no means an easy matter to find Cotswolds. He 
took all the yearling ewes I had to offer him, and two yearling 
rams. 

If you doubt that pure-bred Cotswold sheep are scarce, see 
how many flocks you can find in England or in Canada or in 
the United States, where the sheep are numbered, and a record 
kept of their breeding. 

Now that we have in this country a Cotswold record, we may 



WIXNING FLOCK, LATE MAPLESHADE FLOCK. 157 

expect that more attention will be given to the pedigree of Cots- 
wold sheep. The weak point in regard to it is, that the Eng- 
lish breeders are not placed on the same footing as the Ameri- 
can breeders. 

An English sheep with no number in his ear, or any other 
mark to designate him, is accepted at once, simply because he is 
"■ imported," while we know nothing in regard to his pedigree, 

I make these remarks in justice to those American breeders 
of Cotswolds who take pains to number all their sheep, and give 
an accurate record of their breedino-. 

o 

We are expected to exhibit at the fairs none but pure-bred 
sheep, while we may have to compete with imported sheep that 
are merely splendid-looking " cross-breds " or " grades." 

Knowing the breeding of my pure-bred Cotswold sheep, I feel 
justified in saying that they are far more valuable than the 
general run of imported sheep. I think one of my high-bred 
Cotswold rams will prove a more potent sire than one of these 
promiscuously bred rams, whose only pedigree consists of the 
one word " imported." 

I have no objection to an imported sheep. In fact, I should 
be glad to use one in my flock, if I could find one that had as 
good a pedigree as those I now use ; but I have never yet hap- 
pened to meet with such a sheep ! Look at the pedigree fur- 
nished with the next imported Cotswold sheep you hear of. 
Possibly it will tell you that it was sired by such a ram ; but 
what the ram was, or what the dam or grand-dam was, it would 
be useless to inquire. 

MoRETON Farm. 

, , , „ ^ Rochester, N.Y., Feb. 13, 18S0. 

John M. Bailey, Esq. 

Dear ^/r, — Your favor of the nth has just reached me. I am in 
Rocliester, and have not access to my books to refer to the numbers you 
quote. But I will say this, that, if there is a single sheep in the flock that 
you prefer to those sent you, I will gladly exchange. 

I can assure you upon honor that you have got all the best sheep ; that 
you have not a pure-bred Cotswold ewe in your flock that is not better than 
any pure-bred Cotswold ewe (except lambs) I have. 

I feel badly enough that you have got all my best ewes. My only chance 
lies in my last-year lambs. With them I still hope to compete with you ; 
but that will not be till the fall of 1881. Next year you will have the field 
to yourself. 



158 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



But I have no objection to your publishing the fact that you have pur- 
chased all the (5^j/ ewes in the Mapleshade flock. In point of fact, there is 
no choice about it. You have all the best sheep in the flock. 
Respectfully yours, 

Joseph Harris. 

The foregoing history, with this letter from Mr. Joseph Har- 
ris which I pubHsh by permission, proves beyond question that 
the "Winning flock " is without a peer. 




WINNING ANNA 




Three years old. Weight, 302 lbs. 
First fleece, r2-J lbs.; second, 18^ lbs.; third, 17^ lbs. 










Weight, 195 lbs. Sheared, 13 lbs. 



CHAPTER II. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE " WINNING FLOCK." 

The heliotype from a photograph is a capital representation 
of " Prince," who is monarch of the flock. 

"Prince," No. 630, was born March 2, 1877, and is conse- 
quently three years old. His first fleece weighed 12^ pounds, 
second fleece 18^ pounds, third fleece. May i, 1880, 17^ pounds ; 
his weight at shearing time last year was 230 pounds. He has 
grown a great deal since then ; and now, although only in 
breeding condition, he weighs 302 pounds. The many hundred 
visitors who have come to Winning Farm to see the Ensilage 
have without exception declared him to be the best Cots wold 
buck they have ever seen, and that his fleece is the heaviest, 
the finest, the most lustrous, and the most desirable they had 
ever met with. 

He is handsome, remarkably good form, stylish head, strong 
constitution, and has a perfect pedigree. He is not for sale, 
but will remain at his post the chief of Winning-Farm Cotswold 
flock. I shall have a few of his ram lambs for sale this fall. 
Those who have 25 or 30 ewes which they desire served the 
last of October next will find a good strong ram lamb will give 
them the best of satisfaction. 

Among my breeding ewes, there are none I prize higher than 
•'Lady Brutus," No. 30. She is a noble ewe, weighs 211 
pounds, shears 12I pounds. On the 21st of February she had a 
pair of ewe Iambs which weighed when dropped 21 pounds. 
When three weeks old they weighed 48 pounds. When five 
weeks old their weight was 32 and 34 pounds, — 66 pounds 

x6i 



1 62 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

the pair. When eight weeks old they weighed 92 pounds, and 
are as " like " as two peas. 

No. 675, "Princess 2d," is not as large as some; but she 
yields to none as a breeder. She weighs 165 pounds. Sire, 
"Victor;" dam, "Princess." She had a ewe lamb April 2, 
which weighed \^\ pounds when dropped. Weight, when six 
days old, 21 pounds. 

No. 201, " Winning Anna," is one of the best ewes in the 
flock, and very handsome. Her pedigree is absolutely perfect. 
Sire, " Young Gloster ; " dam. No. 48, by imported " Golden 
Fleece." Grand-dam imported. 

She had on March 24, a magnificent ewe lamb, weighing, 
when dropped, 14I pounds. I paid Mr. Harris, before the ad- 
vance in sheep and wool, $60 for "Winning Anna." I would 
not sell her lamb for that and ;^io added to it, for I believe 
it will make one of the finest ewes in the world. I shall have 
no ewe lambs for sale, as I want to increase my flock, and shall 
therefore keep all the fine ewe lambs, and the poor ones, if 
there chance to be any, I will not sell for breeders. I am re- 
solved that no animal shall leave Winning Farm as a breeder 
that is not superior. Persons from a distance can order just as 
well by mail as in person : describe what you want; if I have it, 
and it is for sale, I will write you, giving you the lowest cash 
price. If I have not got what you want, I shall not try to 
persuade you that an inferior animal will answer. Of course 
there will be degrees of excellence in the stock I shall offer ; 
but what I mean is, that no inferior animals will be sold for 
breeders from Winning Farm. They will be castrated, or sent 
to the shambles. 

I wish I could describe every ewe in "Winning flock." I 
spend hours every day with my sheep, cattle, horses, colts, and 
pigs. I believe I get more enjoyment from seeing them happy 
and comfortable, their wants all supplied, the most suitable 
food fed to them at suitable intervals, than is offered by all the 
pleasures of metropolitan life. 

By the way, the correspondent of "The National Live Stock 
Journal " called upon me a few weeks ago : I told him the story 
of Ensilage, and later took him to the barn to prove what I 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ''WINNING FLOCK:' 1 63 

had said. In one pen were four Cotswold ewes. I first put 
into their feed-troughs some oats and bran mixed : they began 
eating greedily. I then put some Swede turnips in : two of 
them left the grain, and took hold of the roots. I then took a 
double handful of Ensilage, and threw it into the trough : every 
one left their grain or turnips, and all crowded and fought each 
other for the Ensilage. The young lambs eat it before they 
are two weeks old. I do not believe there is any thing equal to 
it for young calves. 

Let me say right here, that, judging from the growth which 
young cattle make in winter, when fed upon Ensilage and wheat 
bran, colts can be raised upon improved Ensilage at one- 
quarter the cost of raising them upon hay, grain, and roots. 
My horses prefer corn Ensilage to carrots. The growth they 
will make in the winter will exceed the summer's growth upon 
the best of pasturage. 



CHAPTER III. 



COTSWOLD-MERINOS. 



I BELIEVE that the great forte of pure Cotswold rams is to be 
used on merino ewes. Joseph Harris was the the first to syste- 
matically try this cross. I will let him tell the story himself. 
He can write better than I can anyway. 

"I am decidedly of the opinion that the 'coming sheep' of 
this country will be what I take the liberty to call American 
Cotswolds. I have hitherto called these sheep " Cotswold- 
merinos : " this designates their origin. But the time has now 
arrived when the name loses its significance. For instance, 
I have Cotswold-merino lambs with three and four crosses of 
pure Cotswold blood in them, and only 6\ per cent of the na- 
tive or merino sheep. The next cross will have only 3^ per 
cent of native or merino blood, and the next only a little over 
i^ per cent. A few years hence American Cotswold sheep 
will be shipped by thousands and tens of thousands every week 
to the English markets. There is no reason why they are 
not now shipped in large numbers, except the fact that they 
cannot be found : we do not raise enough of them, or feed them 
well enough. 

"In the autumn of 1869 I went to the cattle-yards in Buffalo. 
I bought a, lot of common merino sheep that were brought in 
from Michigan. They were intended for the butchers. I did 
not select them. I took the whole lot of 205 sheep. I gave 
three cents per pound for them, live weight. On running them 
to the scales they averaged exactly 80 pounds each, so that the 
sheep cost me ^2.40 per head in Buffalo. I put them in the 

164 



* COTSIVOLD-MERINOS. 1 65 

cars, and brought them home. I selected out 145 wethers to 
fat. The remaining 60 ewes I put to a pure-bred Mapleshadc 
Cotswold ram. 

" These ewes were well fed during the winter, and in the 
spring produced 73 lambs, and we raised 72 of them. Stronger, 
healthier, and thriftier lambs could not be desired. I had 
feared that by using a large Cotswold ram on such small ewes, 
we should have trouble in lambing. I had been told, ' You can 
use a small South-down ram on merino ewes, but the Cotswolds 
are too large. The cross is too violent.' I may say, however, 
that not only the first year, but in all my subsequent experience, 
there has never been the least difficulty. One reason for this 
is, that a well-bred Cotswold, though such a large sheep, has a 
remarkably small head. It is very narrow between the eyes. 

" The ram lambs I sold to the butchers at a good price. The 
ewe lambs I kept to breed from ; and the next fall twelve 
months, when about eighteen months old, I put these one-cross 
Cotswold-merino ewes to a pure-bred Cotswold ram. These 
second-cross lambs were large, strong, and healthy. We had no 
trouble in lambing, and the ewes were capital mothers. 

"These second-cross lambs, when about eighteen months old, 
were bred to a pure-bred Cotswold ram. 

" Many farmers told me that I was carrying the thing too far. 
But it is not so. The lambs from these two-cross ewes were 
remarkably good, many of them as large and handsome as any 
pure-bred Cotswolds I ever saw. 

"The third and fourth crosses were equally good. 

"The first-cross sheep have 50 per cent of pure Cotswold 
blood in them. 

" The second-cross sheep have 75 per cent of pure Cotswold 
blood in them. 

"The third-cross sheep have 87|- per cent of pure Cotswold 
blood in them. 

"The fourth-cross sheep have 93I per cent of pure Cotswold 
blood in them. 

" In 1877 I showed at the fair 'for exhibition only :' — 

" 1st, a common merino ewe with a lamb by her side. The 
merino ewe weighed 75 pounds. Her lamb was born March 



1 66 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

29 : he weighed, July 6, when less than three and one-half 
months old, 74 pounds ; Aug. 8, ^"j pounds ; Sept, 6, loi 
pounds. 

" 2d, No. 6, a daughter of the above merino ewe, and her two 
lambs, Nos. 672 and 673. 

"3d, No. 16, a daughter of No. 6, and her two lambs, Nos. 
617 and 618. 

"4th, a pen of three-cross lambs averaging 128I pounds each. 

" 5th, a pen of three-cross ewe lambs. 

"6th, a pen of two three-year-old ewes with two and three 
crosses. 

" These sheep attracted much attention, and were greatly 
admired. 

"I again exhibited this class of sheep at the New-York State 
Fair last year, and also at the Western New-York Fair. I feel 
sure that those who saw them will not be surprised at my 
enthusiasm. They are just the very sheep that are needed for 
the production of good mutton and good wool. 

"The wool from one of these Cotswold-merinos, or American 
Cotswolds, brings a higher price than the wool from the pure- 
bred Cotswolds ; and the mutton is of finer grain and of better 
quality." 



CHAPTER IV. 

WEIGHTS OF COTSWOLD MERINOS. 

I HAVE at "Winning Farm" Cotsvvold-merino or American 
Cotswold ram lambs for sale. I recommend them to farmers 
who wish to raise sheep for mutton and wool. They are a 
hardy sheep; in the Southern States they stand the climate 
better than the pure-bred Cotswolds. 

As proof that the ptire Cotswold ram is the ram to use on 
merino ewes, let me cite the weights of a few cross-bred 
Cotswold merinos. 

Ram No. 636, one-half Cotswold, one-half merino, dam 
weighing less than 80 pounds ; two years old, and sheared 16 
pounds of good wool, weighs 210^ pounds. 

Ram No. 51, one-half Cotswold, one-half merino, sheared 
15! pounds, weighed 205^ pounds when two years old. 

No. 628, two-cross ram two years old, three-quarters Cots- 
wold, one-quarter merino; sheared 14 pounds, weighs 238 
pounds. 

No. 909, yearling ram, three-cross, seven-eighths Cotswold, 
weighed at birth 14^ pounds, at one year old 197 pounds. 

No. 954, yearling ram, two-cross, three-quarters Cotswold ; 
sire, " Lord Moreton," dam No. 6, grand-dam a merino weigh- 
ing less than 80 pounds. 

No. 509, a three-cross ram lamb, sire a pure Cotswold, dam 
No. 591, grand-dam No. 6, great-grand-dam a merino ; weighed 
at birth 14! pounds, when three months and two weeks old, 
91 pounds ; sheared when one year old, 15^ pounds. 

No. 2, Cotsvvold-merino breeding ewe at Winning Farm, 

167 



i68 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



one-cross, half Cotsvvold, half merino, weighs i6o pounds; 
shears a very heavy fleece of very fine medium-length wool. A 
very handsome ewe, one which I am proud to show as a 




THREE-CROSS COTSW OLD MERINO RAM, "ALEXANDER," ONE YEAR OLD. 

Weight 173 lbs.; sheared. May ig, 15.J lbs. 

specimen of what can be produced by the use of a pure Cots- 
wold ram upon a little merino ewe. 

No. 963, one-cross, very handsome, same blood as No. 2, 
weighs 185 pounds, shears 9 pounds. 

No. 673, a two-cross ewe, a twin, weighs 200 pounds, shears 
15 pounds of fine lustrous wool over twelve inches in length. 
Last spring she had for her first offspring a fine pair of twins, 
this spring she has another fine pair. She is a remarkable ewe, 
and attracts attention even in a flock of as fine pure-bred Cots- 
wolds as the "Winning flock." 

There are millions of merino ewes in the United States. If 
pure Cotswold rams were used for two crosses, their value and 
the value of their clip would be doubled. There are only two 
things that prevent its being done : first, the owners of the 
merinos do not know the great advantages of the cross; and the 
next is, that there are but very i^^^ pure flocks of Cotswolds in 
America to obtain rams from. I shall have a number of ram 
lambs (pure Cotswolds) for sale in the fall. A good, strong, vig- 
orous lamb is just as good as an older ram for 20 to 30 ewes. I 
shall also have quite a number of Cotswold-merino one-cross 
ram lambs : they are worth more than pure Cotswold rams 
to use upon the common bare-bellied sheep of the South. They 
are large, short-legged, and covered all over with a dense fleece 



WEIGHTS OF COTSWOLD-MERINOS. 



169 



of fine wool of the best quality ; characteristics that cannot fail 
to improve Southern sheep. 

Correspondence solicited in regard to sheep and other stock. 

WEIGHT OF PURE COTSWOLDS AND THKIR FLEECES. 



No. 



Description. 



Pounds of 
Wool. 



Weight of 
Sheep. 



630 
509 

30 
64s 
605 
296 
290 
588 
629 
124 
638 
427 
201 
654 
67s 
962 
683 
676 
274 
622 

32 
680 
2 
270 
502 
241 
685 
673 



Prince 

"Alexander," 3-cross ram, i year old 
•' Lady Brutus " 



8 years old 



" Winning Anna " 
" Princess " . . 
" Princess 2d " . 



" Lady Lawson " 
" Lady Hill " . . 



One-cross . 
2-cross ewe 



I7i 
^S\ 
iH 

"i 
II 

n\ 
9 

14 

II 

II 

9 
II 

13 
12 
12 

9 
12 
10 
16 
10 
II 
II 
12 
12 

14 
8 

•5? 



302 
173 

205i 

180 
159 

i95i 
150 

^55 

165 

166 

184 

217 

i8r 

195 

175 

155 

115 

135 

176 

198 

181 

145 

I48i 

17H 

143 

165 

155 

190 



Average weight of Cotswold sheep, May 19 
" " fleece 



171 lbs. 
II lbs. 7 oz. 



I/O 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 




CHAPTER V. 

OXFORDSHIRE-DOWNS. 

Last fall Mr. Theodore M. Norton visited " Red-Gate " 
Farm, Newton, N.J., owned by Henry C. Kilsey, Secretary of 
the State of New Jersey, and purchased for me all the ewe 
lambs he had, also a very fine yearling ram, "Grand Duke of 
Oxford." 

The Red-Gate Oxfordshire-down flock originated as fol- 
lows : — 

The ram "Duke of Oxfordshire," and two ewes bred by Mr. 
A. J. Milton Druce, of Twelve Acre Eyresham, England, and 
twelve ewes bred by Mr. John Treadwell, of Upper Winchen- 
don, Aylesbury, England. They were imported by Mr. T. S. 
Cooper, and purchased from him by Mr. Kelsey in 1875, for 
$1,800. Their produce of 1876 and 1877 has also been re- 
tained. 

In England the Oxfordshires were first exhibited at the royal 
show at Windsor, in 1851, by Mr. John Gillct, of Brize Norton, 
but were shown at the local shows for some years previous to 
that; and they have steadily gained in favor from that time. 
They were first known in America about the year 1859, ^ few 
of them being then imported by Mr. Thomas Motley of Massa- 
chusetts. They have been gradually improved in England by 
the careful and judicious breeding and management of the Duke 
of Marlborough, the Messrs. Druce, Gillet, Howard, Treadwell, 
and others, and are believed to combine more good qualities for 
American breeders than any other sheep hitherto known here. 

Mr. George Gardner, now of Canada, an intelligent English 



172 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

farmer of large experience, wrote to "The Country Gentleman" 
in 1870 in regard to the Oxford-downs as follows : — 

" Having a thorough knowledge of the Oxford-downs, from 
living within a few miles of the part where this breed was 
originated, I can state positively that there is not a more profit- 
able variety in existence. These sheep are a complete answer 
to all those who will not allow that good ever arises from cross- 
ing, as they were a direct cross between the Cotswold on one 
side and the Hampshire-down on the other ; and the Oxford- 
downs are now an established breed, and continue to be distinct, 
and follow true to parentage without any uneven look in the 
flock which will occur at the commencement of a direct cross 
between two pure breeds. . . . The Oxfordshire-down is decid- 
edly the largest of all the Down species, and cuts more wool. 
And the reason that they continue to gain favor in England is 
that the mutton from any kind of Down sheep makes more per 
pound, and is always more readily sold ; and the Oxford-down 
lies better within hurdles, and comes to very early maturity, — 
also cuts a heavy fleece, as well as being of superior quality. 
Any one may depend upon them for being a very profitable 
breed if well fed; for they will cut 10 or 12 pounds of wool 
at 14 months old, and weigh 120 pounds, dressed weight, on tur- 
nips and hay, if the hay is cut when the grass is coming into 
bloom." 

In a letter by Mr. Gardner in December, 1876, he reiterates 
his commendation of these sheep, and says, "They certainly 
combine all the best qualities of wool and mutton in existence ; 
as there is the desirable dark flesh of the original Down, with 
the bulk of the Cotswold, and there is the weight of the wool 
with the finest quality possible." 

The prices for Oxford-downs have advanced from year to 
year in England. At Mr. Howard's first sale in 1865, 57 
rams made £^\2 each ; in 1873 his average for 6^ rams reached 
nearly ;^ 1 6 each, — about 1^85 currency. In 1875 his average 
for 60 head was ^17 6s. 6d., or over ^95 each. In July, 1876, 
at Mr. Druce's annual sale and letting, 46 yearlings averaged 
, ;^i6 each, single rams fetching 51, 44, 30, and 26 guineas, &c., 
while Mr. Cooper paid 85 guineas, or nearly $^00 currency, fo> 



OXFORDSHIRE-DOWNS. 



17: 



the use for the season of iSjO of the two-year-old ram " Free- 
land," and all expenses of passage to and from America, insur- 
ance, &c. 

At the annual show in December, 1876, of the Smithficld 
Club, of fat cattle in London, a pen of Oxford-down wethers 
won the £,4.0 cup for the best pen of sheep of any breed in the 
show, beating the South-downs, Shropshires, Lincolns, and all 
others. They were sold to the butcher at ^9 each. 

I have no pure Oxfordshire-down sheep or lambs for sale, 
but I shall have this fall Oxford-merino ram lambs for sale. 
These Oxford merinos are the progeny of 60 heavy-wooled 
Vermont merino ewes by my Oxfordshire-down ram. 




"grand duke of oxford.' 



CHAPTER VI. 

IMPROVING SOUTHERN SHEEP. HOW TO USE OXFORDS AND 

MERINOS. 

The following written for "The Country Gentleman," and 
copied quite extensively by the agricultural press of the South, 
gives my idea of the special use for which this cross is pre- 
eminently adapted : — 

Editors " Country Gentleman," — I enclose a sample of 
wool from my Mapleshade Cotswold ram "Prince." He is two 
years old ; sheared i8i pounds last spring, and in breeding con- 
dition weighs 300 pounds. I have just examined this sample 
under a microscope magnifying 600 diameters. It is 92 inches 
long and q^q of an inch in diameter. I also send a sample 
(from a wether lamb dropped May i, 1879; sired by a pure 
Oxford-down ram and out of a common coarse- wooled native 
Kentucky ewe), which is eight inches long and j-^o of an inch 
in diameter. Sheared May 19, 1880, 11 pounds, and weighed 
128 pounds. 

I believe the Oxford-down is the best ram of all the pure 
breeds to use on those long-legged, bare-bellied sheep of the 
South. He will cover them with long and fine wool of the best 
quality, and improve their size and the quality of the mutton. 
Still I think they will be a little too leggy. I am trying an 
experiment to obviate that, and at the same time lessen the ex- 
pense of improving a flock. Last fall I bought 84 of the best 
Vermont merino ewes I could find. I have bred 60 of these to 
my Oxford-down ram, the " Grand Duke of Oxford." By this 
cross I expect to get a sheep of strong constitution, covered 



HOW TO USE OXFORDS AND AfEAVA'OS. I 75 

with a dense fleece of fine silky wool of medium length. I 
hope to get a sheep which will be exactly acla[)ted to improve 
both the fleece and the carcass of the common mountain sheep 
of the South. These mountain sheep (the common sheep of 
the South) are long-legged, and shear about i ^- to 2^ pounds of 
coarse, dry, harsh wool, which grows only upon their sides and 
backs. By the use of an Oxford-merino ram (as I will term 
this cross-bred animal) upon a flock of the above common 
sheep, I expect to get a sheep with a fleece worth more money 
than that of the merino grand-dam, and at the same time mut- 
ton will be produced, instead of the superabundant yolk and 
oil with which the fleece of the merino is filled. What the 
South needs is a mutton as well as a wool-bearing sheep. They 
now have neither. 

The demand for mutton is rapidly and steadily increasing, 
both for home use and foreign consumption. Choice mutton 
sheep are quoted in the London markets at 65-. 4^. to 6s. 6d. for 
eight pounds. This is equivalent to 18 to 20 cents per pound. 
The common sheep of the South can be improved so as to 
shear from six to ten pounds of first-class wool, and weigh 150 
pounds at two years old, as my Oxford-down grade lamb proves. 
The two fleeces would then pay handsomely for his keeping ; 
and the breeder would have at the end of two years — costing 
him less than nothing — a sheep worth from $12.50 to $15 in 
the English markets. European steamers run direct from 
Norfolk, so that the sheep-raisers of the South Atlantic States 
have advantages shared by those of no other section. In no 
other way can so much money be made upon the investment, 
and at the same time the fertility of the soil be restored and 
improved, as by keeping sheep. I am by no means certain in 
my own mind, but that it would be a better plan (and I intend 
to try it on my Virginia Stock Farm) to breed these mountain 
sheep once to a pure Vermont merino. This would cover the 
lambs with wool, shorten their legs, and double the value of 
the fleece. Then breed these cross-bred merino ewes to a pure 
Oxford-down ram to get the mutton carcass. 

The difficulty in getting the Southern sheep-owners to try 
this way to any considerable extent will be the expense of pro- 



176 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

curing pure merino and Oxford-down rams, and the necessity 
of keeping both kinds until all the old native ewes have been 
replaced by improved ones. If the first plan will accomplish as 
good, or nearly as good, results as the latter, many will adopt 
it. The cost of an Oxford-merino ram, in whom the two pure 
bloods are blended, will be no greater than that of a pure me- 
rino ram ; and if through his use the good qualities of both the 
merino and Oxford-down can be made to take the place in his 
lambs of the inferior qualities of their dams, time will be 
gained (the old stock will answer to breed from until displaced 
by a large number of grades), and the expense for a pure Oxford- 
down ram saved. 

An Oxford-merino ram (a cross between the two pure breeds) 
can be sold so as to cost the purchaser somewhere from $10 to 
;^20, according to age, size, quality, and transportation charges. 
A pure merino ram would cost as much or more. Then, in 
order to get a first-class mutton carcass underneath the wool 
which the merino cross would give, a pure-bred Oxford-down 
ram will be necessary; and he will cost from ;^50 to ;^ioo. 
This expense can be saved if my Oxford-merino cross possesses 
sufficient prepotency to stamp the good qualities which it must 
possess upon the progeny. There are thousands of sheep-own- 
ers in the Southern States who would try to improve their 
flocks if it involved no greater expense than ^10 to ;^20. They 
well know that a Cotswold cross will do no good upon their 
sheep. The South-down improves the carcass, but does not 
increase the value of the fleece much ; and pure Oxford-downs 
are too scarce and too high-priced. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CRITICISM UPON THE OXFORD-MERINO CROSS, BY A VIRGINIA 

FARMER. 

In your issue of March 6, you publish a communication from 
Mr. J. M. Bailey, which, to some extent, is very commendable, 
in regard to improving Southern sheep. I am very glad that 
he has undertaken to do on a large scale the same thing that I 
have been doing, successfully too, though on a small scale, for 
a number of years ; and I have been doing it in the very same 
way that Mr. Bailey intimated by saying " the people know 
that it cannot be done." I do not wish to enter into a contro- 
versy with Mr. Bailey in regard to a cross between the Cots- 
wold and our native sheep ; for I wield the plough and hoe much 
better than the pen, and I reckon he would do better with the 
latter. Theory is good, but practice is better ; and if Mr. Bai- 
ley, or any other man that has got the idea into his head that 
the Cotswold is not a good cross on our native Southern sheep, 
will visit me, or some of my neighbors that I have furnished 
rams, they will be satisfied that it is a good cross, and, if I am 
not mistaken, a better one than Mr. Bailey's Oxford-merino will 
be, for the reason that his merino has the same fault that our 
native sheep have ; and that is, they do not give milk enough 
for their offspring ; and this fault the Cotswold remedies, and 
possibly the Oxford-down may. As I have had no experience 
with the Oxfords, I cannot say they will not ; but with my lim- 
ited knowledge, having seen quite a number of them, I judge 
they are too closely allied to the South-down, which are the 
poorest milkers known, not excepting our native sheep, to rem- 



178 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

edy this great fault ; for, without plenty of milk, it is impossible 
to make a good lamb or sheep. This fact has been too much 
overlooked by sheep-raisers, for if a lamb once gets poor when 
young it rarely ever makes the sheep it would had it not been 
stinted ; and it is a fact that is conceded by all sheep-raisers 
that know the different breeds, that the Cotswold excels all 
others in nursing their young. In fact, they take the place 
among.sheep that the Ayrshire does among cattle. 

So I would advise all of my brother-farmers that keep sheep 
(and those that do not, to get some), to cross a Cotswold ram 
with their common ewes, save the best ewe lambs ; then in the 
fall after they are one year old (for if put to breeding young 
it will hurt their growth, and hinder them from maturing as they 
should), cross them with a Cotswold ram, and save the ewe 
lamb. Cross another Cotswold ram with them, one that is no 
kin (for in-breeding is ruinous), and you will have a sheep that 
you will be proud of ; for they will give milk for their lambs, and 
will give you from six to nine pounds of wool each (not yolk or 
grease.) 

[To get some sheep is good advice, but to try this cross will 
require six years, two years for each cross. A far better cross 
would be to use a pure merino ram, then breed the ewe lambs 
when about eighteen months old to a pure Cotswold. By this 
I think better lambs than Mr. Burgess's three-cross native Cots- 
wolds could be obtained. I am certain they would be as heavy, 
shorter-legged, and shear more and better wool : besides, two 
years' time will be saved. While I do not think the Cotswold 
a good cross to use upon Southern sheep, the poorest of all 
crosses would be to use a grade Cotswold buck out of a com- 
mon Southern ewe ; without extra care the progeny would be 
meaner than the original ewes. — J. M. B.] 

Then, after grading your ewes up to three-fourths Cotswold, 
use a South-down ram, and you will get a fine fat lamb, such as 
the butchers covet, and will pay you a good price for when three 
or four months old ; or if you prefer to castrate your ram lambs, 
and keep them until two years old, and feed well, you will have 
wethers that will weigh from 150 to 200 pounds each, and at 
the present low price of mutton will bring from eight to ten 



CRITICISM UPON THE OXFORD-MERINO CROSS. I 79 

dollars each in our own little market of Petersburg. Their 
wool will amply pay for keeping until they will do this. 

Now, I must say a few words in regard to Mr. Bailey's Cots- 
wold ram " Prince " (I am satisfied that he is a good one) ; but 
Mr. Bailey says he is two years old, and sheared i8| pounds 
wool last spring. He does not say how many years' growth it 
was, but probably it was all that he had made up to the time 
he was sheared ; and if so, he would improve our native sheep ; 
but my Cotswold ram, " Dick of Linden," would improve them 
more, for he has done better than " Prince." " Dick " is four 
years old; and when one year old sheared 13^ pounds, and had 
wool that measured 1 1 inches long. When two years old, he 
sheared \2\ pounds, making 26 pounds of wool in two years 
(not dirt and wool). When between two and three years old he 
got hurt, so that last year he did not shear as heavy as he should ; 
but he is all right now, and bids fair to do the right thing next 
shearing. Last year I also sheared eight ewe lambs less than a 
year old that gave me 6% pounds of wool, or an average of 8i 
pounds each ; and I now have eight more that will be a year old 
in May that I am satisfied some of them will give me over 10 
pounds each next shearing time ; and all of these are a cross 
between Cotswold and native Southern sheep. I have some 
lambs that arc a cross between a South-down ram and my 
Cotswold native ewes, which are very fine, of which I will report 
hereafter. Meanwhile let us wish Mr. Bailey much success in 
his laudable effort to improve the sheep in the South. 

C. Burgess. 

DmwiDDiE County, Va. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

IMPROVING SOUTHERN SHEEP. 

Mr. C. Burgess is a good farmer. He is lately from New- 
York State. He, like myself and hundreds of others, see the 
advantages which Virginia offers for an improved agriculture. 
Here is my reply to his remonstrance : — 

I am truly glad that Mr. C. Burgess has got such fine sheep 
as he has ; and I am free to confess that when I said, " the 
Southern sheep-owners know that a Cotswold cross will do them 
no good," I stated it a little too strong. I should have said that 
it was by no means the best cross for them. I know from the 
way Mr. Burgess writes, that he takes good care of his sheep, 
that he raises clover and tame grasses, that they are sheltered 
from cold and driving rain-storms, or else fed an extra ration of 
grain at such times to enable them to withstand the inclemencies. 

Now, I will say that for the average Southern sheep-owner 
who raises little if any tame grass or clover, whose sheep have 
got to get their living on the commons, and which receive but 
very little care, which get. no feed during the winter except a 
few corn-shucks or pea-vines when the weather is unusually 
severe, or when snow covers the ground, a Cotswold cross 
would be about the worst cross he could make. The progeny 
of a Cotswold buck and the ordinary sheep of the South would 
have longer legs and longer wool, and perhaps a little more of 
it. They would be tall, raw-boned walking skeletons ; and I 
very much doubt if many of them survived the first winter's 
neglect which their dams have been subjected to for generations. 

I do not say but what Mr. Burgess's sheep are good ones, and 



IMPROVING SOUTHERN SHEEP. 



I«I 



that his neighbors who follow his example and take good care 
of their sheep have profited by the use of rams obtained from 
him. My article was not written for such as he, but for the 
average Southern sheep-owner, whose sheep I wish to improve, 
whether he takes better care of them in the future than in the 
past, or not. When I have improved them, perhaps he will take 
pride in them, and care for and feed them better. Then he will 
be ready for a further improvement, compatible with the changed 
conditions in which his sheep find themselves. 




TWO-CROSS COTSWOLD-MERINO RAM. 

Weight 2105 lbs. ; sheared i5 lbs. ; two years old. 



Mr. Burgess says that he wields the plough and hoe better 
than the pen. That may be, but I will say this : that, if he does, 
he is a mighty good ploughman. He says, " Theory is good, 
but practice is better." I agree with him ; and he intimates 
that if I will come and see him he can show me some Cotswolds 
and Cotswold crosses that will rather astonish me. Perhaps 
so : of one thing, however, I am certain, — that I should like to 
visit him anyway. 

Now, I have as yet only a theory as to the desirableness of 
crossing the Oxford-merino rams upon the common sheep of 
the South. I think it would be a very desirable cross. I am 
trying it as he tried his Cotswold cross. He and his neighbors 
have done well. I think my Oxford-merino cross will be better. 
Time will show. 

I, as well as my esteemed brother farmer (by the way, I have 
held the plough many a day, as well as wielded the hoe), like 



1 82 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

facts better than theory : therefore I will quit theorizing, and 
deal in facts, narrating a few that have caused me to have faith 
in the Oxford-merino cross for the purpose above stated. 

First, as to my Cotswold ram "Prince." He sheared, when 
he was two years old, i84 pounds of fine, long, lustrous wool, 
which was his second fleece ; the weight of his fleece when he 
was one year old was 12J pounds. (Sheared May i, 1880, 17^ 
pounds : 48-^ pounds in 3 years.) He now weighs 302 pounds 
in breeding condition, and has no better feed than a flock of 90 
merinos with which he has run since they were all safely with 
lamb. So much for " Prince." 

As much as Mr. Burgess likes practice or facts, he is evi- 
dently theorizing when he talks about merinos. He says "the 
merino has the same fault our native sheep have, and that is, 
they do not give milk enough for their offspring." I will give 
a few facts upon this point, and then we can see how his state- 
ment tallies with the facts. 

I have a ewe (see No. 2, in table of Cotswold weights and 
fleeces, p. 169) three years old this spring, whose mother was 
a merino weighing less than 80 pounds, and whose sire was a 
pure Cotswold. This ewe weighed when two years old 160 
pounds, and sheared for her second fleece 6\ pounds of fine 
washed wool about four inches long. This is the first cross. 

I have also a two-cross ewe (see No. 6'ji, p. 169) of the same 
age, which weighed when two years old 179 pounds, and 
sheared for her second fleece 1 5 pounds of long, lustrous wool. 
I measured her wool to-day, and it is 14^ inches long. I enclose 
a sample for Mr. Burgess's inspection. She is the grand- 
daughter of a little merino ewe weighing less than 80 pounds. 

I have also a three-cross ram lamb (see No. 509) which weighs 
173 pounds; his wool is 13^ inches long. He weighed 14^ 
pounds when born ; when two months and fourteen days old 
he weighed 91 pounds. He is the great-grandson of a little 
merino ewe weighing less than 80 pounds. 

Now, let me ask how these weights could be obtained if the 
original merino ancestors gave but little milk? For what your 
correspondent from Dinwiddle says about stinting the lamb is 
true : they will never be the sheep thev would have been had 
they been well nourished when young. 



IMPROVnXG SOUTHERN SHEEP. 183 

The fact is, there is no breed of sheep so useful to use on 
merino ciues as the pure Cotswold. But the native sheep of the 
South are the very opposite of a merino. 

Now a few words as to Oxford-downs, concerni-ng which Mr. 
Burgess says his knowledge is limited. I do not wish to be 
understood as intimating that my knowledge is by any means 
unlimited. 

From the name of his Cotswold ram (and he is a good one), 
"Dick of Linden," I infer that he came from T. S. Cooper, of 
" Linden Grove," Coopersburg, Penn. (This is a theory.) And 
I will say that Mr. Cooper sold all his Cotswolds some time 
ago, and replaced them with Oxford-downs. Mr. Cooper says in 
regard to changing his breed of sheep as follows: "When in 
England in 1875 I could not decide which to buy, — • Oxfords,' 
' Shropshires,' or 'South-downs;' and upon asking Mr. John 
Thornton, the noted short-horn auctioneer, which to try, he 
advised me to buy a few of each, and keep them together in 
pasture for one year, giving them all the same attention, and 
by the end of the season I could tell which I liked best. I fol- 
lowed his advice ; and not only did I give one, but two years' 
trial. As expected, the Oxfords were the favorites of every 
breeder." 

About this time Mr. Cooper disposed of his Cotswolds ; and 
whether "Dick of Linden" came from "Linden Grove," or 
not, the above proves that one of the most noted breeders in 
America was dissatisfied, and wanted something better, and 
thinks he has secured it. 

I do not agree with him exactly. I think for breeding in 
their purity, or for crossing on merinos, the Cotswold has no 
superior. 

I have pure Oxford-downs, the progeny of fourteen ewes bred 
by John Tread well and A. J. Milton Druce, England, and a 
ram by the Duke of Oxfordshire, which were imported by T. S. 
Cooper, and sold to Henry C. Kelscy, Secretary of State of 
New Jersey, for $1,800. They are all last May ewe lambs, ex- 
cepting one yearling ram, "Grand Duke of Oxford," who is 
now at "Virginia Stock Farm." 

Mr. Cooper's flock of Oxfords sheared, in the spring of 1876, 



184 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

\2\ pounds on an average. Robert C. Estil, of Lexington, Ky., 
proprietor of the Elmhurst flock of Cotswolcls, one of the best 
flocks in the country, writes as follows : " My Oxford yearling 
ewes sheared me on an average i/i pounds of good wool, bring- 
ing me the highest market prices. They are, without excep- 
tion, the finest milkers I ever saw. They are extraordinarily 
prolific, having twins as a rule, and often triplets : they can 
raise three lambs as well other breeds can raise one." 

I could give many more facts and statements of distinguished 
breeders, but think enough is shown to convince any one that 
my critic's theory as to the Oxfordshire-downs being poor 
milkers is hardly in accordance with the facts. 

The Oxford-down ram, " Freeland," which I had the pleasure 
of seeing last January, weighed when imported 425 pounds ; 
and thirteen ewes, imported in 1879, weighed on an average 
250 pounds. 

To return to the Cotswolds, " Lady Brutus," No. 30, a pure 
Cotswold ewe in '' Winning flock," had a pair of twin ewe lambs 
on the 2 1 St of February; weight when born 21 pounds; when 
three weeks old they weighed 48 pounds ; when five weeks old 
66 pounds ; when eight weeks old, 92 pounds; when 12 weeks 
old, no pounds. 

In conclusion, I will say, if Mr. Burgess will visit me I will 
show him some Cotswolds, also Oxford-downs, as well as 
merinos, that will be worth looking at. 

And next fall I will show at the Richmond and Petersburg 
fairs some Oxford-merino lambs, with their merino dams, 
agfainst his first-cross Cotswold lambs with their native mothers 
— and may the best win ! 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOW I PROPOSE TO RESTORE THE FERTILITY OF AN OLD COTTON- 
PLANTATION. 

In May, 1879, ^ purchased an old cotton-plantation in Vir- 
ginia, and have been engaged in stocking it with short-horn 
and Jersey cattle, Oxfordshire-down and merino sheep, Berk- 
shire swine, and imported French horses. 

The first thing to be always borne in mind is the permanent 
improvement of the land. 

My experience with commercial fertilizers is not such as to 
encourage me to continue to use them on a large scale. Home- 
made manures will be manufactured and saved from every 
source. The stock will be yarded nights where plenty of leaves 
and wood-mould will be kept to absorb all liquid droppings, and 
to prevent the loss of valuable elements by fermentation or 
evaporation. In addition to this we must depend chiefly upon 
turning under green crops, a proper rotation of crops, and the 
cultivation of clover. No other grass is worthy to be named 
beside it. 

In relating what we are doing and propose to do at "Virginia 
Stock Farm," I will first say, that, if our plans commend them- 
selves to the judgment of Southern readers, they can adopt 
them and do likewise. If not, they can wait and see the re- 
sults ; and, if they are what we expect, they can follow our 
example. 

The plantation which I have christened " Virginia Stock 
Farm " is situated in the southern part of Sussex County, 
about six miles from Waverly, a station on the Norfolk and 

i8s 



1 86 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

Petersburg division of the Ohio, Atlantic and Mississippi Rail- 
road. 

It comprises about 2,500 acres, about 400 of which have 
been in cultivation by tenants for several years, about 1,000 
acres in old fields, more or less grown up to pines and covered 
with a sod of broom serge (andropogon), balance in original 
forest. 

Winter being the best time to bring stock from the North 
to a warmer climate like Virginia, I procured 54 heifers and 
two bulls selected in person from the herds of J. D. Gillett of 
" Elkhart Park," Logan Co., 111. 

A short description of hrs herds will doubtless interest the 
readers of this book. 

" Elkhart Park " comprises about 10,000 acres of rich prairie- 
land. Mr. Gillett has upon it over 3,000 head of short-horn 
cattle. He commenced raising cattle over forty years ago, 
procuring the best short-horn stock he could. Since then, 
whenever he has found a bull better than his own, he has 
bought him, and used him upon his herds. His aim has been 
to produce short-legged, broad, heavy-quartered, blocky animals, 
that were hardy and would mature early. He has succeeded 
in producing an almost perfect beef animal, vastly superior 
to the pampered, delicate, but highly pedigreed short-horns of 
fashionable breeding. His calves, yearlings, two and three 
year-olds, are uniform in size and build, much more so 
than any herd of pedigreed short-horns that can be found in 
America. 

By the English rule, all of his stock would be eligible for 
record, but for the fact that he has paid no attention to re- 
cording, devoting all his time and thought to producing, not 
individual animals of high merit, but a race of beef animals 
superior to all others. A glance at the premium list of the 
Chicago fat-stock shows for 1878 and 1879, when he competed 
with thoroughbred stock of all breeds, as well as their grades, 
winning over $2,500 in prizes in the two years, is sufficient to 
convince any impartial observer. 

In fact, it was all one way, so much so that last year he made 
a public announcement that he would hereafter make but one 



PREMIUM SIIORT-IIORNS. I 8/ 

entry in a class, so that other breeders might have some chance 
to win the second prizes at least. 

He exhibited two car-loads of four-year-olds, two car-loads of 
three-year-olds, two car-loads of two-year-olds, and received 
first and second prizes upon each, and one car-load of yearlings 
upon which he received first prize. Year before last he took 
first prize for best three-year-olds, first and second prizes for 
two-year-olds ; first and second prizes were also won upon 
steers one year old and under two. 

He also took first prize in sweepstakes, both pure and grade 
(all breeds), competing for the best steer, three years old. 
Sweepstakes also for best two-year-old. 

The chief interest was in the contest for the grand sweep- 
stakes of $200, cash, and " Stock-Journal Challenge Cup," 
valued at $125, open to all breeds and ages for the best beast 
in the show\ 

Twenty-one animals of all breeds and ages were, entered, em- 
bracing the choicest animals in the show. The unanimous 
award was that J. D. Gillctt's short-horn steer was the best ; 
this being the third prize this steer received at the show. 

"This award appeared to give universal satisfaction; for so 
perfect was the conformation, and so fine the condition, of this 
steer, that he was by common consent voted the champion from 
the opening of the exhibition." {National Live-Stock Journal.) 
See cut, p. 188. 

Nor were these all the honors which Mr. Gillett's short-horns 
received. The grand prize of $300, as well as the second 
prize for best car-load of not less than ten head, was awarded 
the Gillett short-horns. Forty pure and grade short-horns were 
entered for this prize. 

In no case when the grades (so called) were allowed to com- 
pete, did a pedigreed animal bear off the prize. 

I had the pleasure of visiting Mr. J. D. Gillett at his home, 
Elkhart Park, last November. A few days before my arrival 
he had sold 292 head of three-year-olds, whose average weight 
was 1,850 pounds, at $5.65 per cwt., weighed upon his 
scales at home. He had a lot of 90 steers, all three-year- 
olds but eight, which were two-year-olds, in a lot which I ex- 



i88 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 




SH0R7-H0RNS FOR VIRGINIA. 1 89 

amined critically, for I had conic 1,500 miles to buy breeding 
stock for "Virginia Stock Farm." All these animals possessed 
the same characteristics. Their backs were straight and broad 
from shoulder to loin, with flesh deep and even as a cushion. 
The ribs were well back, long and well covered, chests deep and 
wide, shoulders broad and well rounded, short neat necks, heads 
small, with mild, contented expressions. 

Concerning this bunch of steers, Mr. Gillett on the 9th of 
December, 1879, wrote me as follows: "The cattle you saw, I 
have sold for $5.85 per hundredweight. Their weight in Chicago 
was, first lot, 23 head, 1,985 pounds ; second lot of 24 head, 
1,988 pounds ; third lot of 24 head, 2,036 pounds. This will 
make the lot of 71 head average a trifle over 2,000 pounds. I 
kept out 19 head of the best ones, for which I have refused $6 
per hundredweight. They are a splendid, extra lot, and I 
want $7 per hundredweight for them." 

We then rode to another pasture, and examined his two-year- 
old and yearling steers. They had never eaten any grain, nor 
been under a shelter. The next day we inspected the cows and 
bulls, and last the yearling heifers and heifer calves. Out of 
about 800 animals I selected 20 of the choicest yearlings, and 
34 of the best heifer calves, and two yearling bulls. 

They were weighed after they had been on the route two 
days. The yearlings weighed 850 pounds each, and the calves 
500 pounds each. 

This lot of short-horns are at "Virginia Stock Farm." I say 
they are the best lot of short-horns in America ! that J. D, 
Gillett has built up a breed, or family, of short-horn cattle, by 
paying no attention to any thing but merit, that for beef, for 
hardiness, for power to reproduce the same characteristics in 
their progeny, exceeds any breed of cattle in existence. 

As to pedigree, all I want to know is that an animal is one of 
J. D. Gillett's good ones. He never saves any but good ones, 
either male or female, for breeding purposes. All his cows are 
proved breeders. If one proves a poor breeder, she is fed for 
beef. By thus for more than forty years weeding out all animals 
of inferior or mediocre qualities, he has achieved this result. 

The reason why his stock is better than pedigreed short- 



IQO 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



horns is, that every pedigreed calf is raised and kept for breed- 
ing ; his pedigree sells him for more than he is worth at the 
shambles, the purchaser trusting that he will transmit the 
good qualities of his ancestors instead of his own inferior qual- 
ities. If pedigreed stock had been as mercilessly weeded out as 
Mr. Gillett has weeded his herd, they would not have to take 
back seats whenever they have to compete with his grades. 

In all the attributes which render pedigreed short-horns desira- 
able, J. D. Gillett's stock are immeasurably their superiors ; and I 
consider them to be a distinct and superior breed, and, to distin- 
guish them from the ordinary pampered and degenerated short- 
horns, christen them " Gillett's short-horns." We shall have bull 
calves of this famous breed for sale at "Virginia Stock Farm" 
this fall. They are the kind to use on the native stock of the 
South. Purchasers will run no risk of acclimation : these calves 
are born in Virginia, and can be taken with safety to any part of 
the South in the fall and winter. We have also a fine lot of 
young thoroughbred Jersey or Alderney bulls descended from 
such noted cows as Motley's " Flora," No. 923, A. J. H. B. (rec- 
ord, 5 1 1 pounds of butter in one year), " Europa," No. 74, A. J. 
H. B. (record, 19 J pounds of butter in seven days upon pasture 
and two quarts corn-meal daily). We shall keep constantly on 
hand choice breeding stock from the best strains. 

For beef no bull would be as potent as one of the Gillet 
short-horns to use upon native cows. For milk-like cream and 
gilt-edged butter, use the Jersey bull of well-known butter-yield- 
ing strains. 

We also have pedigreed short-horns of the purest blood. 
" Duke of Summerfield " was bred by the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College ; was dropped Nov. 7, 1878, Sired by "Baron 
of Grass Hill," No. 18,975, American Herd Book. Dam, "Yu- 
catella," No. 914, American Herd Book; granddam, "Yarico 
57th;" great-grand-dam, "Yarico nth," by " Kirkleavington." 
There is no better-bred bull in the United States. He was 
bought, when a calf, by John M. Bailey of "Winning Farm," 
Billerica, Mass., and "Virginia Stock Farm," Sussex County, 
Va., and raised at "Winning Farm." Was shipped to Virginia 
in the fall of 1879. (See opposite page.) 



AMERICAN HERD-BOOK SHORT-HORNS. 



191 




192 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

It may be asked what all this has to do with restoring the 
fertility of an old cotton plantation. I reply, it has every 
thing to do with it. Keep plenty of good stock-cattle, horses, 
hogs, and sheep, — especially the last two ; feed them in win- 
ter, and in summer, when severe droughts prevail, upon Ensil- 
age ; yard them nights ; save all the manure ; and the old 
plantation will grow fertile, and the long-cropped soil blossom 
as the rose. 



BERKSHIRE SWINE. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE "WINNING HERD." 

"Othello's Sambo V." was placed at the head of the "Win- 
ning Farm" Berkshire breed, in March, 1879, and in his breed- 
ing qualities bids fair to rival his famous grandsire "Othello." 
He has all the characteristics of the Berkshires in a marked de- 
gree, — grand style, fine head and ears, long, broad and level back, 
very heavy deep hams, and is in all respects a model. His 
grandam's sister, Mr. Cooper sold for $1,000. I have the great- 
est difficulty to keep him from getting too fat. In fact, they are 
all alike in this respect. I am satisfied from careful experi- 
ments that it costs no more to make three pounds of pork with 
Berkshires than it does to make two pounds with any other 
breed I am acquainted with. The ham of the well-bred Berk- 
shire is at least fifteen per cent heavier in proportion to his 
weight than other breeds, with a much larger proportion of 
lean meat. The meat is fine-grained and of excellent flavor. 
There is, in some sections of New England, a prejudice against 
their color. That is an objection which is not skin deep, for 
after they are dressed they are whiter than the white breeds. 

He was imported May 14, 1877, farrowed March 8, 1877. 
His pedigree runs directly back through six generations of pure 
Sallies, to the famous "Sallie I." On the male line we find such 



194 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 




IMPORTED BERKSHIRES. 195 

illustrious ancestors as "Othello's Sambo," "Othello," — the sire 
of all the "Sallic" and "Sambo" families, — " Dewe Boar," 
" Second Duke of Gloucester," " King Tomb's Boar," and the 
"First Duke of Gloucester." 

This magnificent boar was placed at the head of the " Sallic" 
family in the "Linden Grove" herd of T. S. Cooper, a place he 
occupied with' honor to the herd as well as himself, until he was 
drafted to occupy the highest place in the "Winning-Farm" 
herd. 




The imported sows which have contributed to the "Winning 
Farm" herd consist of "Sallic XX. 's" sister, the largest "Sallic" 
sow in America : at the same time she is of remarkably fine 
form and carriage. She will weigh, in breeding condition, about 
550 pounds; if fat, would easily weigh between 800 and 900 
pounds. She raised a fine litter this season, and since they 
were weaned, July 30, until the cold weather came on, had 
nothing but grass. She was bred by Russell Swanwick, Eng- 
land, and imported May 25, 1876. 

Next comes " Presbury," of whom Mr. Cooper wrote me, when 
she came to " Winning Farm " last March, as follows : " I have 
sold over $1,200 worth of pigs from ' Presbury,' since I imported 
her, May 14, 1877." 

"Sallie VIII.'s" daughter was got by a Stumpy boar, who won 
the first prize at Berks and Hants show, England. " Sallie 
VIII.'s" daughter was one of three in a prize pen at the Ccnten- 



196 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



■nial. Mr. Cooper states in his catalogue, "'Sallie VIII.' never 
had a better pig than this magnificent daughter, and ' Lady 
Liverpool ' has reason to be proud of her granddaughter." " Lady- 
Liverpool " has the finest pedigree and record of any " Sallie " 
sow in the world. She took the first prize at Gailford, 1871 ; the 







•■^48 



JM^.-^ 



•^i^ 




' PKESBURY. 



reserve number at the Royal at Wolverhampton, 1871 ; first 
prize and silver cup at Liverpool, 1871. Her sire, the " Hebcr 
Boar," took the first prize at Gloucester, 1868. She won more 
prizes, and bred more prize-winners, than any sow in England. 
She was imported in 1876 by T. S. Cooper. 





^^ J^'- 



-.^^^jrt-'^^'-C^-^*^^*^ -^ 



'U 



"stumpy viii.'s daughter." 



" Stumpy VIII." is a remarkable sow, — great in size, perfect 
in form, with the finest Berkshire head I ever saw. Her sister 



HIGH- CLASS BKRKSIirRES. 



197 



" Stumpy X.," Russell Swanwick sold for ^90 ($450) in ^o\(\. 
Her progeny are remarkably fine specimens, and occupy a con- 
spicuous place in the " Winning-Farm " herd. 

"Stumpy VIII. 's Daughter" is pronounced by all who have 
seen her, as the finest Berkshire sow. As one breeder e.xclainietl 
upon inspecting her, " I don't know where to take off a quarter 
of an inch, or where to add an ounce." 

She is perfectly marked, has an exceedingly short dished 
face, very heavy hams, in short, cannot be excelled at either end, 
and her middle is as good. 

She is in farrow by "Belladonna's Smithereen," a promising 
young boar out of "Linden Belladonna" by " Stumpy's Smith- 
ereen." 



i««fc«»'''«T)«T?:?"ttr^'- '/-.B^~'_v-^-^ 1 










LADY ALICE SWINEVH.LE. 



"Lady Alice Swineville " is one of my most fashionably- 
marked sows. She was bred by IMr. Hebcr liumfrey, Eng- 
land. She has nine little " Sambos " following her, which, for 
true Berkshire style, cannot be equalled. 

This young sow was amongst the best of the 1877 importa- 
tions, and for real merit, handsome style, and fashionable mark- 
ings, cannot be beaten. As a breeder she is without an equal. 
"Virginia Sambo" is a son of "Lady Alice" by Othello's 
" Sambo V." 

"Virginia Sambo " was selected to take the place at the head 
of the "Virginia Stock Farm :" he is a perfect reproduction of 
his sire, "Othello's Sambo V." 



igS 



THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 




BERKSHIRES AT '^ VIRGINIA STOCK FARMr 199 

"Frozen Ear," a full brother to "Virginia Sambo," and 
equally well formed, is also at "Virginia Stock Farm." 

The sows at " Virginia Stock Farm " consist of 
"College Lass " No. i has a litter by Othello's " Sambo V." 
Nos. 2, 3, and 4, are due in May by "Winning Chief," another 
of " Lady Alice's " sons, who is sure to make his mark. 

"College Lass " No. i was bred by the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College, farrowed Sept. 5, 1878, sired by "Sambo, 
jun.," No. 2,247 American Berkshire Record. Dam, "Pride of 
Autumn," imported by Sawyer, of Easthampton, Mass. "Col- 
lege Lasses," Nos. 2, 3, and 4, by "Sambo, jun.," out of 
"Electra." "Pride of Autumn" dressed 425 pounds, right 
from pasture, without being fed any grain. 

"Winning Sambo" is another brother to "Virginia Sambo," 
for whose remarkable qualities we must give Othello's " Sambo 
V." and " Lady Alice " credit. 

" Lady Alice's daughter," "Winning Alice," "Winning Ada," 
"Winning Agnes," "Winning Achsa," and "Winning Aurora,'" 
are six daughters of "Lady Alice Swineville " by "Othello's 
Sambo v.," farrowed Nov. 2, 1879. They form a pen that I 
delight to look at: they are perfect miniatures of their sire 
and dam ; they combine all the good qualities to be found in 
the Berkshire. They will be bred to the "Duke of Presbury," 
son of imported "Presbury" mentioned above, whose breed- 
ing qualities are second to no sow in the world. "Duke of 
Presbury" is sired by "Earl of St. Bridge." 

The "Earl of St. Bridge" won first prize at the Royal, held 
at Liverpool, Eng., July, 1877, besides three other first prizes 
at different shows in the same county. He also won general 
sweepstakes for the best boar and two sows ("Belladonna's" 
niece, and "Stumpy IX.") of any age or breed, at St. Louis, 1877. 
He inherits in an unusual degree several marked characteristics 
of his progenitrix " Lady Liverpool." 

" Earl of St. Bridge " is also the sire of " Dynasty," a very 
stylish boar out of "Sweet Diana," a remarkably fine sow of 
the " Sweet Seventeen " strain. There are none better. 

"Sweet Diana" was imported by T. S. Cooper, bred by 
Heber Humfrcy, England. 



200 777^ BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

Another son of the "Earl of St. Bridge" is a remarkably well- 
built young boar out of " Sweet Janet," a full sister of " Sweet 
Diana." He has but one fault, — his head is a little coarse; and 
on that account I will sell him very low, $25 boxed and delivered 
on board cars. He was farrowed April 7. Dam, " Sweet Janet," 
got by son of " Sweet Seventeen's " sister, by " Sir Dorchester 
Cardiff;" 2d dam, "Sweet Lucretia," by " Smithereen ; " 3d 
dam, "Sweet Desdemona," by " Maple Grove ; " 4th dam, " Sweet 
Seventeen's" sister by "Lagrange." His unexceptionable pedi- 
gree would make him a valuable addition to any herd requiring 
an infusion of fresh blood from a different strain. 




"Winning Belladonna," imported Aug. 22, 1877, is one of 
the finest Berkshires in America. She has an unexampled pedi- 
gree. She was bred by Mr. Heber Humfrey. Her dam, " Bella- 
donna's" niece, and her great-aunt "Belladonna," have taken 
more prizes than any two sows in the United States and Cana- 
das. "Belladonna's" niece, as follows: First prize and sweep- 
stakes at Paris, Ky., 1877 ; sweepstakes at Lexington, Ky., as 
best sow of all breeds, 1877; at Indianapolis, Ind., first prize; 
also, first as best sow and pigs, 1877. To crown all, at St. 
Louis she secured the sweepstakes as the best Berkshire on the 
ground ; also sweepstakes as the best sow of any breed or age, 
and the general sweepstakes (with " Earl of St. Bridge " and 
" Stumpy IX.)" as best boar and two sows of any age or breed. 

"Belladonna," "Winning Belladonna's" great-aunt, won the 
first prize in her class at the Centennial, and was there awarded 



PRIZE- WINNING HERKSIIIRES. 



20 1 



the grand sweepstakes prize of $50 and medal, as the best sow 
of any age or breed. She weighed 770 pounds. Mr. T. S. Cooper 
was offered $1,600 for her while on exhibition, but refused the 
tempting offer, believing her to be worth more to him as a 
breeder. These sweepstake prizes for the best of any age or 
brrcd Q,\\^^l to settle the question of the Berkshire's superiority. 

"Winning Smithereen " and " Ik-lladonna's Smithereen " are 
two very fine young boars, partaking in a marked degree of the 
excellent characteristics of the justly celebrated "Belladonna" 
family. 

They have very short dished faces, good bodies, hams, and 
shoulders, and are covered with a plentiful coat of fine jet-black 




SMITHEREEN. 



hair. ' They were so fine that I bred "Stumpy VIII.'s Daughter" 
to "Belladonna's Smithereen," and I could not pay him a greater 
compliment. I do not know which is the best. One of them 
will go in the fall to "Virginia Stock Farm;" the other will 
remain here to represent the " Belladonna-Smithereen " strain. 

There are three more sows bred by Heber Humfrey of the 
" Sweet Seventeen " family, which have added another choice 
strain to the "Winning-Farm" Berkshire herd. 

To sum up their merits, all must admit their extreme hardi- 
ness. They are more active than other improved breeds, which 
enables them to graze and do well when others would perish. 
They are wonderfully prolific, often having 12 to 16 fine pigs at 



202 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 

a litter ; good mothers, and docile to handle at all times. They 
are especially adapted to cross upon the common swine of the 
country, their strong constitutional origin marking the grade 
pigs so strongly that they would deceive a connoisseur unless 
he knew their breeding. 

Berkshire pork, I am credibly informed, brings a penny a 
pound more in the markets of England than other breeds. 

The boars who have sired the "Winning-Farm" herd com- 
prise "Sambo XVI.," "Othello's Sambo V.," "Earl of St. 
Bridge," and " Stumpy's Smithereen ; " thus giving three 
entirely different strains, so that all in-breeding is avoided, 
which is absolutely necessary if the constitutional vigor of a 
herd is to be maintained. 

Young pigs of the above strains for sale at reasonable prices. 
No charge for delivery on board of the cars or to express com- 
panies. When possible I will get a through rate, and save pur- 
chasers all unnecessary expense. All orders received at "Win- 
ning Farm" from the South delivered at Norfolk to railroads 
centring there, free of charge. Orders received at "Virginia 
Stock Farm " delivered to the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Ohio 
Railroad, /(?.^. 



M. W. DUNHAM'S 

OAKLAND STUD 




nan Horses. 



The Largest and Most Complete Establishment of the kind in the World. 

JRXore -tlian. T^vo XTiiiidlretl Stallions and ^Xaross 

Iinj>ox*tccl fi-om tlio I>t-«t. f?stiicl-S^tal:»le!-» 

in iri-jiii<i-4^. 

Winners of the First Prizes in Europe and America. 

Pirst Prizes and Gold Medals at Universal Exposition at Paris, over all. 
Pirst Prizes and Grand Medals at the Centennial Exhibition, 1876. 



Nothing has been si^ared in the development of an establishment that, in 
its systematic appointments, its practical and common-sense management, its 
acciimvilation of the choicest animals of the breed, combining the highest ele- 
ments of value in draught-horses, — size, symmetry, style, action and quality, 
— has no equal in the luorld. 

The public appreciation of its merits is indicated by the great demand for 
stock from every part of the country. During the past twelve months the 
Provinces of New Erunswick, Canada, and the States of New York, Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebras- 
ka, Kansas, Texas, Louisiana, Colorado, Nevada, California, and Oregon, and 
Utah, Washington, and Idaho Territories, have drawn supplies from its stables. 
By the aid of large annual importations, selected personally from the best 
breeding districts of Franco, I am determined to sustain its prestige, and be 
prejjared at all times to afford purchasers an opportunity of selection from 
animals of the most undoubted quality, and at terms and prices that cannot 
but be satisfactory. 

One-hundred-page Catalogue now ready. The finest thing of the kind 
ever issued. Twenty-five pictures of stallions and mares sent fbee on ajapli- 
cation. 

M. W. DUNHAM, 

WAYNE, BTJ PAGE COUNTY, ILI,. 

A fresh importation of these horses arrived April 15. 

N. B.— Every pure-bred animal recorded in PEUCHEKON-l^OK- 
MA^ STUD-BOOK. 



--_;5'^^' wrM'''"[':'';':i'''l(|i|p''(['[ifViir'[f|I'l ;"'T'''iW™«f''»W)^i'i 




I 



BRADLEY'S PHOSPHATE, 



FOR ALL CROPS. 



This phosphate was introduced twenty years ago, and 
from the first year of its use the demand has stead- 
ily increased until its sales have reached enormous pro- 
portions. Its unparalleled success is due to the fact 
that its uniformly high standard has always been main- 
tained, every shipment being analyzed by competent 
chemists before leaving the factories. 

It is a high-grade bone phosphate, and contains all the 
elements of plant food in the most approved proportions, 
to meet the requirements of the various crops, based on 
the experience and demonstrations of the oldest and 
largest manufacturers, and on the experiments of the 
best agricultural chemists in the world. 

It is finely ground and dry, and in its mechanical con- 
dition, as well as in its chemical composition, defies com- 
petition. 

It has been used from Nova Scotia to Louisiana, and 
from Maine to Illinois, in growing all the various crops 
in the different sections, and has always given the most 
satisfactory results. 

This fertilizer is especially recommended for growing 
fodder-corn and other green crops, for the new curing 
process of Ensilage, and for raising Hungarian grass, 
millet, and all root crops. 

It is put up in barrels or bags to suit the purchaser. 

Pamphlets, giving testimonals, directions for use &c., 
sent free on application. 

Address all communications to 

BRADLEY FERTILIZER CO., 

MANUFACTURERS OP STANDARD FERTILIZERS AND IMPORTERS OF AGRICULTURAL 

CHEMICALS. 

OFFICE AND SALESROOMS, - - 27 KILBY STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 

SEE TESTIMONIALS ON IIRADLEY's PHOSPHATE ON THE NEXT PAGE. 



TESTIMONIAL LETTERS 

ON THE USE OF 

BRADLEY'S STANDARD PHOSPHATE. 



FKOM THE PEESIDENT OF THE HUBBARDSTON FARMESS' CLUB. 

Huui;ardston, MAbS., Nov. 25, 1879. 
liRADLEY Fertilizer Co. 

Gents, — I h.nve used commercial fertilizers for the last two years quite extensively. In 1878 I con- 
trasted Bradley's Phosphate with another noted special fertilizer for corn. 1 used them in the same field, 
side by side with like culture, and Bradley's Phosphate gave me the most /odder, the most corn, and 
an earlier crop. During the same year I raised excellent beans and potatoes on liradley's Phosphate 
alone: this year I planted nothing without using your fertilizer. As an experiment I took one acre of 
my poorest land, which two years ago was more or less covered with brush, and on which in 1878 I cut 
a crop of r>'e. This land had never been fertilized with barn-yard manure. I planted it with potatoes, 
using nearly four hundred pounds of your fertilizer. The field was planted late, but yielded a hundred 
and fifty bushels of very nice and smooth potatoes. The crop was hoed only once. From two years' 
experience I am convinced that paying crops of potatoes can be raised on your fertilizer alone. I am 
further convinced that it will hurry forward all garden crops as well as field crops, and will greatly 
increase their amount. Yours truly, HENRY A. FARWELL. 



FROM ONE OF THE LEADING FARMERS OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY. 

CoRlNNA, Mil., Aug. 2, 1879 

Bradley Fertilizer Co.: 

Gents, — I have used your Phosphate for the past twelve years, and always with satisfactory results. 
I have given many other commercial fertilizers a trial, but find tiiat I'.radley's goes ahead of them all. 
Last spring I used your Phosphate on all my corn, with tlie exception of ten rows where I used a special 
formula manure, using it at the same rate that I did your Fertilizer, and 1 find that there is double tlie 
corn on tlic same area of land where I used the Phosphate; and my neighbors agree with me in ihis 
statement. Truly yours, J. L. JONES. 



FP.OM THE CHAMPION CORN GROWER OF THE STATE OF MAINE. 

Skowuegan, Me., Oct. iS, 1879. 
Bradley Fertilizer Co.: 

Gents, — Some five years ago I commenced using Bradley's Phosphate. Since that time I have 
tested all the different commercial fertilizers brought into this county. Last spring I planted sugar-beets 
with Bradley's Phosphate, and tried alongside of it another brand of Super-phosphate, and also a special 
sugar-beet fertilizer. 1 find that Bradley" s Phosphate leads on sugar-beets as luell as corn and 
grain, and 1 am more convinced than ever that it is the cheapest, best, and tnost reliable of any com- 
mercial fertilizer ever brought into the State of Maine. Respectfully, R. B. S.A.VAGE. 



FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE CHESHIRE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL 

SOCIETY. 

Keene, N.H., Nov. 18, 1879. 
Bradley FERTiuziiK Co.: 

Gctits, — I have been experimenting a little with fertilizers during the past season. I planted corn 
with three different kinds of commercial fertilizers, Bradley's Phosphate, an animal fertilizer which was 
offered for sale about here, and a somewhat noted special manure for corn. I made the trial just as 
fairly as possible, using them side by side on the same land, and giving the same chance to all. 1 could 
not see any difference between the animal fertilizer and special manure neither at harvest time nor dur- 
ing the season; but where I used Uradley's Phosphate the crirn was :\houl ten days ahead and all oj" 
one-third hea^iier than either 0/ the others. I have used Bradley's Phosphate for fifteen years, and it 
always gives me good returns. 1 have tried almost every other kind of fertilizer sokl about here, but I 
prefer Br.adley's Phosphate. I raise my corn crop with it every year, and I have taken first premiums 
for several years at the Cheshire County Fair for the best corn. Sometimes I leave five or six rows 
through my field without putting in any Phosphate, and it always looks as if there was a deep ditch 
running through the piece. The trouble about here with the corn crop is, we can't get it out of the way 
of early frosts. I find no trouble when I use Bradley's Phosphate. 

Truly yours, CHARLES ABBOIT. 



INCREASES WHEAT CROP SIXTEEN BUSHELS PER ACRE, AND DOUBLES 
CLOVER CROP NEXT YEAR. 

Penn Yan, N.Y., June 16, 1879. 
Br.-\dley Fertilizer Co.: 

Gents, — I vised four hundred pounds of your Super-phosphate in the fall of 1875 upon two acres of 
a six-acre field. The yield of wheat was sixteen bushels per acre more than on the portion where no 
Phosphate w.as applied. The growth of clover has also been much larger. Have used it on nearly all 
the wheat I have sown since the fall of 7875, ^"d >' h-"' increased the yield from ten to twenty bushels 
per acre. This vear the growth of clover is more than double on that portion of the field where Phos- 
phate w.as u.sed. " Yours truly, SAMUEL PERRY. 



ASTONISHING RESULTS FROM THE USE OF BRADLEY'S FERTILIZER Oil 

GRASS. 
[FROM HON. JAMES S. GRINNELL.] 

Greenfield, Mass. 
Wm. L. Bradley, Esq., Bostom, Mass. 

Dear Sir, — Pursuant to my promise, I will give you an account of my trial of your " Grass Ferti- 
lizer " on a lot then belonging to my late father. It was a low-lying tract supposed to contain ten acres, 
but proving to be but eight and one-half acres, and inclined to be wet, smooth, and level old sod, and full 
of all manner of foul stuff, from which we did not cut over five hundred pounds to the acre, not having 
been ploughed or manured for twenty years. In August, 1877, I put in two drains of stone across the 
piece, and ploughed it with a Michigan and an Ellis plow, from seven to nine inches deep; it was then 
sowed with your " Grass Fertilizer," at the rate of about four hundred pounds to the acre, and no other 
manure used; it was then harrowed, then sowed with herdsgrass and redtop, eight quarts of each to 
the acre, and rolled. It passed the winter well, and gave great promise through the spring, which did 
not fail me in the cutting. In April I sowed five pounds of clover to the acre. The grass was cut and 
hayed between July i and 6, and yielded a little over two tons to the acre of as good hay as was ever 
put into a barn. The grass came up so thickly and evenly that it was very fine and perfectly clean. I 
purpose seeding five acres this fall, the remaining portion of the old meadow, and shall want enough of 
the same compound for that amount of land. Very truly yours, JAMES S. GRINNELL. 



OATS RAISED WITH NO OTHER MANURE BUT BRADLEY'S PHOSPHATE. 

SotJTH Peacham, Vt., Nov. 23. 
Bradley Fertilizer Co.: 

Gents, — I have raised, the past season, four hundred and fifty bushels of oats on nine acres of land. 
I used about two hundred pounds of Bradley's Phosphate to the acre, with no other fertilizer. 

HARRIS LYNDS. 

BIG YIELD OF POTATOES WITH NO OTHER MANURE BUT BRADLEY'S 

PHOSPHATE. 

[FROM THE HAVERHILL DAILY BULLETIN OF SEPT. ig, 1879.] 

Mr. Samuel Fellows has proved the efficacy of Bradley's Phosphate as a fertilizer for potatoes. This 
season he has raised over six hundred bushels oix two and one-half acres of land, using nothing but 
Bradley's Phosphate. 

POTATO CROP MORE THAN DOUBLED BY THE USE OF BRADLEY'S PHOS- 
PHATE. 

Peru, Me., Oct. 14, 1879. 
Bradley Fertilizer Co.: 

Gents, — I find by careful experiment this season that two hundred pounds to the acre of Bradley's 
Phosphate has more than doubled my potato crop. GEOllGE H. DAVIS. 



SIXTEEN DOLLARS' WORTH OF BARLEY FOR FOUR DOLLARS' WORTH OF 

PHOSPHATE. 

Starkey, N.Y., June 16, 1879. 
Bradley Fertilizer Co. 

I have used quite a quantity of your Fertilizer on my crops with paying results. I cannot afford to 
sow a crop without using Phosphate. Yours has given the best results of any used. I used two htm- 
dred pounds per acre on five acres of barley last season, and it produced two hundred and eighty bushels 
of si.x-rowed barley, that would weigh fifty pounds to the bushel, giving me sixteen dollars for every 
four dollars' worth of Phosphate. Respectfully yours, STOUT SMITH. 



FORTY PER CENT MORE CORN ON PHOSPHATE WITHOUT MANURE 
^ THAN ON MANURE WITHOUT PHOSPHATE. 

Potsdam, N.Y., June 17, 1879. 
Bradley Fertilizer Co.: 

Gents, — Wherever I have used your Phosphate I have received a very marked benefit on com, 
potatoes, and wheat. On corn, last year, on heavy clay and loam soil, I got forty per cent more corn 
without any manure where I used your Phosphate than where I used manure. 

Yours truly, F. V. ELLIS. 



IT PAYS FOUR HUNDRED PER CENT ON WHEAT, AND THEN INCREASES 
CLOVER CROP FOR TWO YEARS. 

McLean, N.Y., Feb. i, 1879. 
Bradley Fertn-izer Co.: 

Gents, — I have used your Phosphate on corn where it made an increase of twenty-five bushels of 
corn per acre; on wheat, where it paid me four hundred per cent by actual measurement, and also 
made a marked difference in the clover for two years. 

Yours respectfullY, ED. PER LEE. 



THE 



"Casaday" Sulky Plow. 




No Landside. Light Draft. Easily Managed. 

Move and Intter work with the same jjower 
than can he done ht/ ani/ plow hi use. 

Address, for circulars, terms, &c., 

OLIVER CHILLED PLOW MILLS, 

SoxTtli 13eiifl, Tncl. 



NO ROYALTY 



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An expert will shear ten sheep an ^lour, easily, as sheep are shorn in New 
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Also manufacturers of a fine variety of 



"Winning Faum," Bii.lerica. Mass., May 24, 1880. 
American Shearer M'f'g Co.— I am veil satisfied with the working of the Sheep 
Shearer upon my Cotswolds and Oxfordshire ]>owns. We sheared one tine ewe in five 
minutes; weight of fleece 11 pounds. It sliears them smoother and better than can be done 
by hand. Yours respectfully, JOHN M. BAILEY. 

A complete line of our Goods can te seen at C. M. MOSEMAN & BROTHER, 
128 Chamber St., N. Y.; B. A. EARL, 857 No. Fifth St., Philadelphia, Penn.; 
and L. C. CHASE Si CO., Washington St., Boston, Mass. 

SEND FOR OUR ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE. 

AMEEICAN SHEAHEH MANF'G CO. 

WATER ST., NASHUA, N. H. 



COOLEY CREAMER. 

Hold Mfilal, Paris, 1879. Butter niaile by tliis process 
awaitieil .bi'vc/^ji/a/.vs at Iiuernational l>aiiy Fair, ISTti, iiiitl (Jot<l 
Medal nwA First J'teviium at the gaiue fair, 1879 ; I-'irst Premium at 
Koyal Agricultural Kxhibiiion, Londou, ISTti. 

ll requires no inilk-rooin ; it raises all of cream between milkings , 
Tt alTorcls better veiuilalioii ; it requires less labor ; it is nmre tlior- 
oMj^'hly made ; it is dieaper, and K'ves belter satisfaction iliau any 
iillicr way of setting milk. 7'/te liutter made by this system is unex- 
celled in its keepiiiji (/iialilies. 

Over eigbt tliousand of tbese Creamers are now in use, and give 
the best of satisfaction, 'i'bo best dairymen of the country use and 
recommend tbem, includinj; (tgden Kami, Newjiorl, 11. I., Kclio 
Kami, 1-itclitielJ, Conn., Winning Kami, Hill> rica. Mass., Lawrence 
Farm, (iroton, IMass., T. J. Cooper, Coopersburg, I'enn., Hiram 
smith, Slieboygau Falls, Wisconsin, llolley (irove Farm, I'laiulleld, N. J., and many others. 




DAVIS S"WI1TC CHTTRIT. 




Aiffinh'tl First I'reiniinn overall competitors at onlj' prac- 
tical testever held at International Dairy Fair. The box contains 
no lioais or inside gear, which mash the butter-globules ; no 
corners in which the cream can lodge to be washed into tlie 
buttermilk and lojt when the butter separates. 'Ibe butter 
gathers iii beautiful granules, in the best possible comlition 
for washing in the churn with cold water and brine. This Churn 
needs only to be seen to be appreciated. Is easiest to work ; 
easiest to clean. Sales are increasing fast where they have been 
introduced. 



THE EUREKA BUTTER WORKER. 




Miffhest A.wnrtl at the Interttatioiial Dnirij 
Fair at yetv York, I>ec<-nil>cr, 1H7S. 

The "Eureka Worker" is so constructed that all por- 
tions of the butter are equally worked with even pressure ; 
works faster and leaves the;/rniii of butter in much better 
condition than the workers with corrugated rollers, au<l 
is acknowledged by the best dairymen to be superior to all 
others. 



TEE IMPROVED EVAPORATOR 




3la1:es better Siiffar than any ajtparatiis iu use, 
tvith one-ltatf the fuel and labor. 

INIakes sugar that will sell several cents above that 
made in pans. No sugar iiiuker should be wiihout them, 
at the extremely low im!k;k at which they are now 
olfered. These Kvaporators are extensively used for 
evHpiiiating IMaple Sap, Cane and Sorghum Juice, and 
for making .Telly from Sweet Cider without sugar or any 
foreigu matter. 



ALL OF ABOVE GOODS MANUFACTURED BY THE 

Vermont Farm Machine Co. 

Illustrated Circulars sent on apjiUcalion. 



ERICAN FODDER CUTTER. 

ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ENSILAGE. 

W'Uh a one or two-liorso tread power or a small engine to drive it, 25 to 50 tons of green 
curu fodder cau easily be cut in oue day, % of aii inch long. 




Tlie above cut represents onr Cutter with the Safety Flv 'SVliee], by wliich perfect safety 
is secured to the machine while in motion, and also to the operator. In case any hard 
subst<ance, such as iron, stone or bone comes in contact with the knives, bein^ fed into the 
machine with the fodder when the machine is running at its highest speed, there is no 
danger of breaking. 

In presenting our Nkw Improved Baldwin's American Fodder Cutter to the 
dealers and farmers of the country, we wish to call their attention to a few of the ililferent 
points of tlie machine which makes it the leading and by far the best Fodder Cutter in 
the market. 

1st. Tlie wood work is made of the best timber, thoroughly seasoned, and bolted 
together so it cau always be kept tirm. It is not pinned together with wood pins like most 
Cutters In the market, which soon become loose and makes the Cutter shaky, 

2d. The iron work is made of the best wrought and c.nst iron, the boxes in which the 
journ.als run are bablieted, thus avoiding any possibility of their wearing out; the knives 
are made of the best .steel, thoroughly tempered. 

3d. Hy a .-iuiple device the top feed roller is so arranged that it rises and f.Tlls according 
to the thickness of the fodder fed into the machine, and at the same time is kept parallel 
with the lower feed roller, which relieves all strain from other parts of the machine, 

4th. 'I'he feeding arrangement is the simplest and best in use, having only three feed 
gears, while other machines in the market are a perfect ntass of gears, which anyone 
acquainted with machinery would see at a glance would be liable to get out of order and 
make the Cutter run hard. 

5th. Each machine cuts four lengths— %, 14, 1 and \\{, inches. The length of cut can be 
easily and speedily changed, and is so simple that anyone'can understand it. 

No. 13 has two knives 13 inches long, and is large enough for cutting for Ensilage for 
the majority of farms. 

No. 1.5 has two knives 18 inches long. It is the largest Cutter we make and is especially 
adapted for large siables, paper mills, and for cutting green forage for Ensilage. 
Manufactured for and for .Sale by 



AlbaAy Com id M Fbt ers. 

(See cut on opposite pdije.) 

Awarded the Highest Medal at the Centennial, as being the Best Planter. 

SAVKS ITS COST IN PLANTING FIFTEEN ACRES (W CORN. One man an.l ,i 
horse can plant from seven to ten acres of corn in one day, with the Planter, at a cost of 
from $3.50 to $;j.00. 

COST TO PLANT riPTEEN ACRES BY HAND: 

Marking botli waya, one man and liorse, two days, at S3 S6.00 

Planting, twelve "men, at .If 1 ... . 12 00 

Roard for ten extra men, two meals each, at 2.5 cents 5.00 

Wasted, one bushel of corn 1.00 

Total cost by hand ?24.00 

Plant your garden with the Planter in drills, and cultivate close to the rows by horse 
instead ofhand. Its value for this purpose alone is more than its cost. 

This PLANTER, at one process, opens its furrow, gauges, drops, covers the seeds and 
rolls them down. Also measures and marks oil the distance for the next row or drill to be 
jilanted. 

It will plant all kinds of Seeds, from Corn, T^eans, Peas, etc., to the smallest and varied 
forms of (^iarden Seeds, in Hills or Drills, at any distance between the seeds or hills from 
one to seventy-two inches. Also measures the Quantity of >eeds lo Ihe Hill, Drill or Acre. 

Any of these changes may be made in tive minutes' time to adapt it to the work re- 
quired, and the seeding action may be instantly thrown i>ut of gear and stopped, in turning 
at headliinds, or for moving from iield to field. Hy being careful about throwing out of and 
in gear, at the end of the rows, the hills may be made to row both ways. 

Willi recent improvements in strength and workmanship, the manufacturer is enabled 
to offer this machine as the nearest perfect Planter extant. 

There have been more than twenty thousand of these Planters made, sold and put in 
use, and ipliich are f/irhi;/ uiir/ualijied salla/nclion, aud the demand for them is constantly 
increasing. It may be worked by horse or hand. 

Price §20.00 

" with Fertilizer or Horse Hoe 23.00 

" with both 25.00 

Address, O. H. P. CORNELL, Albany, N. Y. 



SELF-OPERATING SULKY RAKE. 

Best Rake Made in the World. 



POINTS OF SUPERIORITY. 

SIJUPZICITY.— The mechanism for elevating the teeth of this rake consists simply 
of a double crank and two independently acting clutches. 

2>rj?^j;/ZJTr. — The lifting device is sufficiently strong to withstand the severest 
strain, and is subjected to HO jrear jr/(a^fyer, except when lifting the teeth. Nor can it be 
injured by accidentally or otherwise throwing clutches into gear while the teeth are falling. 
This is an objectionable feature found in most self-dump rakes, but which is fully overcome 
iu the construction of the LION. 

EASE AND NICETY IN OPERATING. — To Aisrharge a gathered load, the 
operator has to merely put the right foot npon a conveniently placed pedal and press d«)wn- 
wards, which locks the lifting device, thus requiring no further care from the driver, as the 
forward motion of the horse completes the operation. 

GUAR ANTEE . — Every rake is guaranteed to give satisfaction if properly managed, 
to be made of good material and in a workmanlike manner, and to do good work in all 
kinds of hay and grain. 

Examine our Rake before Buying;. 

Address, O. M. F. COItl^TELlL., All>aiiy, iV. Y. 



PLANET, JR. 





B 



Is Invaluable for Horse Cultivation of all Garden and Field Crops. 







It is constructed in the most thorough manner, of the best materials, in elegant style 
and with extra tinish. Tlie frame and standards are of wrought iron, hol pki) together; the 
teeth are tempered and polished steel; the handles are adjustable in lieiglit and the fran.e 
in width. It has our Improved Patent Clevis, having neither loose pin nor bolt, to regulate 



furnished with a wheel in front when so ordered, and two extra teeth supplied at small 
additional e.xpense form an attachment which converts the tool into the celebrated 'Iron 
Age" Cultivator. "When used with wheel and an adjustable concave roller in the rear, it 
makes a tool which covers corn without tearing up the sod, and in the most thorough and 
expeditious manner possible. 

No Sugar Beet grower or Ensilagist can 
afford to be without one. 



NET RETAIL PRICE LIST. 

Planet, Jr., Horse Hoe, Plain, --------- $9.75 

" " " with wheel, 10.75 

'' ■ " " with Wheel and Cultivator Attachment, - - 10.75 

" " " complete with Wheel and Cultivator Attachment, 12.00 

Corn Covering Roller with Irons Add - - - - - - - 3.50 



JOSEPH BRECK & SONS, 

51, 52 and 53 North Market Street, - - - Boston. 



CHEAP COHXT CX7LTT7IIS. 



THOMAS PATENT 



sibHa;;;;^BS^Wi 




WITH 48, 72 OR 96 ROUND SLANTING TEETH 

OF TEMPERED STEEL. 

The Frame of Carefully-Selected, Well-Seasoned White 
Oak Timber, Thoroughly Painted. 



Patented September 22, 1868; October 24, 1871; January 16, 1872. 
PUOPRIETORS AND MANUFACTURERS, 

THE THOMAS SMOOTHING HARROW CO. 

Office and Manufactory, 241 and 243 Exchange St., 



AGENTS FOR NEW ENGLAND: 

JOSEPH BRECK & SONS, 

51, 52 and 53 North Market St., - - Boston, Mass. 



Dkar Sir, — We resiiectfully oomniend to your notice tlie following extract 
from ail editorial in tlie i'lmntin (ioitlcinan oi" April l."». It is the experiunci- 
of several thoiisaiul readers of tliat paper, who own our Harrow. This is tin- 
only iuipleuient that increases the yield of i^rain, hesides doinij; the work of 
pulverization twice as rapidly and far more effectively. A mowing machine or 
a reaper gathers the crop quickly, hut makes it no greater. Our Harrow will 
do the work of harrowing in one-half the usual time, and increase the crop 25 
per cent: — 

THE THOMAS SMOOTHING HARROW. 

"Tlie Slantiiifj Tootli Harrow lias already proved an important labor-saver in some de- 
partments of fanning. The rouiKi, smooth teeili, slanting backwards at an angle of forty 
degrees, freely clear all obstructions, do not clog, pulverize manure, harrow wheat, anil 
destroy the small weeds in corn drills. Two or three harrowings of wheat in Spring before 
sowing clover, liave increased the yield on an average aliout live bushels per acre; and if 
nse<i on all the ^8,000. 000 acres of the Union, would be worth over a hundred million dollars 
in tlie aggregate. Used on corn before it comes up, and every few days for a month after- 
wards, tliis iifiplement clears out all starting weeds and saves three dollars an acre in hand- 
lioeing and cultivating. On the 50,000,000 acres of corn iu ibo Union, it would be worth a 
sum of great magnitude." 

We also call attentioiito the following from the llural New Yorker, April 
17, by W. I. Chamberlain, of Hudson, Summit County, Ohio, one of the staff 
writers of the llural, himself an extensive farmer, who has used the Thomas 
Smoothing Harrow for eight years. It is part of a long article discussing farm 
machinery: — 

"FIELD CULTIVATION OF 'HOED CROPS' 

should be ahnost exclusively irithonf the hoe. In many parts of the West the large field.-- 
of corn, potatoes, broom corn, etc., never see a hoe at all. How the East may learn from 
the West! Corn is planted with a two-horse rower th;it plants twelve acres a day better 
than it can be done by hand. It puts the seed down two inches into damp soil, below the 
reach of the harrow teeth soon to follow and sure to uproot or displace ordinary surface 
planted corn. Potatoes are covered with a horse. Both are harrowed thoroughly several 
times before and after coming up. The Thomas Smoothing Harrow is best for this. Indeed 
it is the only implement I know that is a perfect success as a broadcast weeder and tiller of 
!/rnu'in</ crops. It kills the young and tender weeds, if used every few days, and leaves un- 
harmed and greatly benefitted the firmer, deeper-planted corn, potatoes, oats, wheat, etc., 
and it mellows the soil in the hill as no hoeing can." 

Blawensbuko, N. J., Dec, 1879. 
The Harrow you sent me gives entire satisfaction. A sjyleiuHd implement for cultivating 
corn before and after it is up. By harrowing it both ways it will kill weeds and loosen the 
ground around the hill better than could be done with any other machine I know of. 1 also 
consider it invaluable for harrowing wlieat in the Spring, having a very beneficial effect, 
doing no damage whatever, and making the catch of clover an absolute certainty. 

Yours truly, AUGUSTUS VAN ZANDT. 

ASCUTNRYVILI.B, Vt., Dec. 8, 1879. 
The barrow proved itself to be exactly what we wanted, and as a seed and smoothing 
harrow we think it cannot be excelled. We used it on ground that was so stony that one 
section had to be lifted frequently to allow it to pass between the stones. We were equallv 
satisfied as to its merits on stony as well as on smooth ground. We earnestly recommend it 
to be used either on stonv or smooth ground. 

Yours truly, ALLEN MURRAY, F. W. BLANCHARD. 

Dkerfield, Franklin Co., Mass., Jan. 16, 1880. 
I have used your Harrow for several years with perfect satisfaction, it will pay for 
itself every year in cultivating twenty acres of corn. H. C. HASKELL. 

We have thoroughly used your Harrow in cultivating corn and find it fully performs 
all you claim. For general use no harrow that we have ever seen bears any comparison to it 

WHITTRN WELLS, Hellville. Wood Co., W. Va. 
S. C. GRANNIS, Clinton, Oneida Co., N. Y. 
N. A. SMITH, Sunderlain, Franklin Co., Mass. 
J. L. PETFRS. Worcester, Mass. 

D. A. WHEELOCK, Roslyn, Queens Co., N. Y. 
J. W. RATHBORN, Utica, N. Y. 

E. G. RUGGLES, Whidsor, Windsor Co., Vt. 
E. WISNEK. Flat Rock. Crawford Co., Ill, 
HIRAM ASHCROFT. Sheboygan Falls, Wis. 
E. M. JRWETT. Buffalo N. V. 

I. L. PATTKRSON, Mt. Ayr, Iowa. 

ROBT. M. McDonald, Summit, Plke Co., Miss. 

HENRY NU'OLL. Philadelphia, Pa., ."iO Pine St. 

W. D. MERRELL, PrarieduChien. Wis. 

JOHN B. DEACON, .Mt. Holly, Iturlington Co., N. J. 



MANUFA€TUKER OF 

AXD 

Cultivating implements, 




T. B. HUSSEY 

Manufacturer oj 

Agricultural Implements 
No. Berwick, Me 



HUSSEY'S NEW HOESE HOB 

AND 

CULTIVATOR COMBINED. 

THE 
CENTENNIAL IMPROVED- 

WITH 

Five Steel Teeth* 

AND 

Two Steel Mould" 
boards. 



"Mr, Hussey's plows give excellent satisfaction — never hear them spoken 
of except by way of approval." — Maine Democrat. 

"The pattern is very handsome, and the plow itself a specimen of excel- 
lent workmanship." — New Hampshire Journal of Agriculture. 

"Mr. Hussey not only makes it a point to get up a first-rate plow as a 
whole, but also to have every piece and part of it perfect." — Union and 
Journal. 

"The No. 15 plow I purchased of you last fall draws the easiest, for the 
work it does, of any plow I ever saw. It Avorks beautifully, and to my entire 
satisfaction." R. T. RANKIN, Winterport, Me. 

"Since visiting the factory, we are not surprised that the Hussey Plow, 
evidently made with so much care and skill, has gained such an enviable repu- 
tation. We say, 'Speed the (Hussey) Plow.' " — Aroostook Pioneer. ■ 

" The Hussey Plows are the only ones we can sell in this section." 

M. M. STACKPOLE. West Woodstock, Conn. 

"We, the undersigned, citizens of Ipswich, Mass., are using the Hussey 
Plows, and would cheerfully recommend them to all in pursuit of a first-rate 
plow." RANDALL ANDREWS. 

L. C. PICKARD. 

IRA A. CARLISLE. 

THOS. SANFORD. 



STOCKBRIDaE 

MANURES. 

SEND FOR NEW PAMPHLET. MAILED FREE. 



Seven years ago the Stockbridge Manures More only known to a few farmers 
in the Connecticut Valley. Now they are so extensively used in the Atlantic 
States as to require tAvo large factories, one in Boston and one in Xew York, to 
manufacture tliem. This increase shows what farmers think of good ferti- 
lizers, and is not only due to the fact that they are reliable, well-made, and 
high-grade manures, but also to the fact that farmers have found them . 

PROFITABLE TO USE. 

And now that corn and other farm produce is bringing good prices, such as 
were seldom realized during the war, considering they are now on a gold ?)«.st.s, 
fanners will Lhcrefore find these manin-es still more 2>*'ofilahle 10 iise. 

ALSO, iMAXUFACTURERS OF 



The Best and C'lieapest Sold in New England. 

ALSO FOR SALE, 

Agricultural Chemicals, Ground Bone, &.c. 

BOWKER FERTILIZER CO., 

43 Chatham Street , Boston, or 

3 Park riace, Xetc YorT:, 



THE PIONEER DRILL OF AMERICA, 

MA^NVFACXURED BY 

MACEDON, \NA\NE COUNTY, N. Y. 



THE ONLY DOUBLE DISTRIBUTER DRILL IN THE MITORLD 



Can Instantly and by a Sing:le Movement be changed from 
a drill especially adapted to seeding the fine heavy grains to one especially 
adapted to sowing the coarse bulky grains. 

THE BONANZA GRASS SEEDER. 

The only Seeder readily adjustable to work in front or rear of tubes, with 
equal facility for work in either position, securing uniformity and certainty of 
distribution of all grass seeds, large, small, or mixed. Has been highly 
coniniended everywhere a grand snccess. 

THE FERTILIZER ATTACHMENT, 

never more positively than to-day maintained its conceded superiority over all 
other devices for this purpose. The last year has proved its eminent supe- 
riority over each and every competitor, readily and satisfactorily distributing 
Fertilizers whose composition or condition rendered their distribution impossi- 
ble by any otlier device. 

Any oi' the devices in use sow dry fertilizers passably 
well. Not a sing:Ie one oi' its competitors have been able to 
either nnit'ornBly or continiaonslv distribute, bad, damp and 
pasty fertJJi«ers. WE GlTAIiA!\TEE S*ERFE€T work Avith 
this drill, distribulin;;^ any variety of fertilizer on the mar- 
ket, and in any condition it is offered for sale by its 
uiantifartnrers. 

THE COMMON SENSE SPRING TUBE 

may be used as a peg tube in case any part becomes demoraMzed, preventing its 
use as a spring tube. Is thorouglily practical in its operation, simple in its 
construction, possessing all the endurance and wearing quality of the Pin or 
Peg Tube. Using no gum or rubber in its construction, it is impervious to 
weather or exposure, and, if accidentally broken, can be repaired at your 
homes, saving the cost of transportation and delay. 

21^=° All these Drills are furnished with Neck Yoke, Whiffletrees, Land 
Measurer and the Davis Patent Tube Shifter, for which an extra 
cliargi* is made on all other Drills using it. 

The Superior Manufacture and finish of these Drills are 
too Avcll k.Bfiovi'n to require mention here. 



2l^=° For Descriptive Circulars, Price Lists, and any further information, 
£id(lr6ss 

BICKFORD & HUFFMAN, 

MACEDON, WAYNE CO., N. Y. 



HEMP'S PATEXTT 





DLMm m Ml COIEI. 




This cart is not only a Great Labor Saving 3Iachine, but it does its 
work better tlian can possibly be done by lia.nd. 

This great saving of time and labor is only of secondary importance as 
compared with the quality of the Avork it does. Good judges have decided that 
manure spread as even and pulverized as line as this Cart leaves it, is worth 
from Ttvetily-ftve to Fifty Cents per Load more than the ordinary way 
of spreading, as tlie young plants receive the full benefit of the manure. 

It will spread all kinds of manure, whether coarse or fine, wet or dry, 
heavy or light. 

It can be attached to the fore wheels of any Ordinary Farm Wagon. 

Eead what J. J. 11. Gregory, Esq., says: — 

RiCHAKDSON Mfg. Co.: Makblehead, Mass., April 10, 1880. 

Bear .9Jrs,— Send to my address, Marblehead, a Manure Spreader witli latest improve- 
ments. The best possible recommend is the fact that, after using two last season I now 
order a third. Should they last but ten years, if I Ret a dozen dollars a year value, out of 
them, they will pay for themselves. Whereas I am satisfied that 1 SHve iu'liiiie jiecessary to 
spread it, and in the lietter manner in the spreading, with the greater value given the nian- 
nre by reason of extra fineness, at least a dollar on a cord. Now as I expect to spread some 
hundreds of cords with said cart, you can lignre the profits of the investment. 

Yours truly, J. J. H. (iREGORY. 

P. S.— I class it in value to the farmer squarely up with the Mowing Machine. 

J. J. H. G. 



MANUFACTURED BY THE 

son Manufacturing Co, 

worc£stje:r, mass. 



FRANK BRAMER'S NEW 

Randall Harrow. 




Grreat Iiiipro vemeiit . Ne Plus Ultra. 

The Host Convenisnt, Effective, Surable and Reliable Harrow Made. 

THE STANDAED OP COMPARISON POE ALL OTHERS. 

The Original Vertical Plate Wheel Harrow, 

A Cultivator equalled by no other; economizes time, saves labor and money, secures the 
greatest yield of crops by the most perfect tillage. 

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. OVER 30,000 IN USE. 

Unrivalled for its power, incomparable rapidity and effectiveness for surface tillage of 
all tenaci(jus and tough soils; is often a substitute for the plow, cutting more than six feet 
ill breadth. It is deservedly considered to be the 

MOST POPTJLAK AND PROPITABLE FAEM IMPLEMENT IN USE. 



1.VIIAT IT WILrl^ DO. 

It will Save time, It will Increase your crops. 
Save labor, Increase your purse. 

Save money, Increase your happiness, 

Save seed grain. Increase the value of your land. 

It will Thoroughly pulverize the soil, 

Thoroughly cover up your seed grain, 
Thoroughly cover up your surface manure. 
Thoroughly satisfy you in every respect. 

Every operation in tillage should refer, directly to securing the largest crop results and 
to an increase in the after-value of the land. This can be done by the use of the KANDALL 
PULVERIZING HARROW. 

MANUFACTUKKD BY 

THE WARRIOR MOWER COMPANY, 

l^ITTLE FALLS, IsT. Y. 
AnPHAXED LoOMis, President. Fit.VMv Buamer, Manager. 

Warehouse, 38 South Market St,, Boston, 3Iass. 



Pearce's Improved 

CAHOON'S PATENT 

Broadcast Seed Sower, 



For Sowing Wheat, Oats, Hemp, Barley, Jdye, 
JSuckivheat, Grass Seed, Mice, Flax, &c. 



The hand machine, at a common walking gait, sows from four to eight acres 
per hour. The acknowledged superiority of these machines over all others has 
already placed Ihem in the front rank of labor-saving agricultural implements. 
A saving of four-fifths of the labor, and one-third of the seed used in hand- 
sowing is eifected by using these machines. A person entirely unused to sow- 
ing by hand can xise either machine with perfect success. 

They are Warranted to give Perfect Satisfaction, 

And to save their cost In less time than any other farm implement yet intro- 
duced. They are substantially built, and with ordinary care will last many 
years. 

The Horse Power Machine, at the usual walking gait of a horse, sows from 
ten to fifteen acres per hour. 

JOSEPH: BRECIS <& SOITS. 



WHITMAN'S IMPROVED 




These are mamifactiired for one or two horses and are entirely different in 
construction from any otlier in the following points: The chain is made of 
wrouglit iron, never breaks, and when worn out any blacksmith can make a 
new one, while other powers are made with cast iron chain, which breaks often 
and cannot be repaired without new links. The gearing consists of a 24-inch 
gear meshing, with a pinion C4 inches in diameter, causing less friction and 
gaining more power than those using the geared chain, which are troublesome, 
breaking very easy and losing strength, wlien the lags become twisted, thereby 
creating friction, causing them to run very hard. The trucks are five inches 
in diameter, with wide face and long hub, causing them to run much easier 
than the small truck in general use. The hub of the trucks run against smooth 
iron guides instead of being confined to then- axles by nuts, or running the side 
of the truck against a flanged railway, as are used in other powers, which must 
necessarily cramp the truck, causing them to bind on their axles, thereby 
losing power that is otherwise retained in this machine. The chain is con- 
structed by means of a three-fourth incli rod passing through the links between 
the lags. The lags are ten inches in width, firmly bolted to the chain, which 
makes the tread very firm for horses, avoids rock or rocking motion, also the 
jar that is a common comijlaint witli geared chain i)ower and those using nar- 
row treads. 

The bridge where the horses tread is much larger in diameter than in other 
powers, thereby gaining much power on account of the weight being farther 
from the centre of the shaft. We put in a long pinion shaft, driving from 
either side with a six-arm wheel, instead of a four-arm as shown in the cut. 

The above points, with many others we do not mention, make our power 
siiperior in durability and ease of draft, and their compactness and simplicity, 
lightness, great strength and width of tread ing-tloor, are great points of 
excellence. 

Whitman's improved Railway Horse Power is well adapted for running Ensi- 
lage cutters, and by many will be preferred to a steam engine. 

JOSEPH BRECK & SONS. 




T. S COOPER, 

" Linden Grove," Coopersburg, Pa. 

IMPORTER AND BREEDER OF 

BERKSHIRE SWINE, 

AND 

Oxfordslaire Doatv^h Slieep. 



Mr. Cooper's Berkshire^ won the first prizes and grrand 
sweepstakes at the Centennial. 

Send for Illustrated Circular. 




Fairhnks' Slanlarl mi 



Absolute Accuracy f Unvaftfinff Accuracy^ Sensi- 
tlve Action,, Diirahilifi/^ 

Are tlie necessities of a perfect Weighing Machine. 
ALL THESE REQUISITES ARE TO BE FOUND ONLY IN 






They are made in every variety, adapted to all uses, and with 

EVERY IMPROVEMENT 

which the skill and experience of a half-century in the business can suggest. 
MANUFACTURED ONLY HV 

E. & T. FAIRBANKS & CO. 

ST. JOHNSBURY, VT. 

ALSO, 

Miles' Alarm Tills, or Safety Money Drawers, 

Store Trucks, Coffee Mills, The Type 

Writer and Lawn Mowers. 

FAl SCALES m imi OR THE MS, ALSO M Mil USE, 



WAREHOUSES : 

83 MilK Street, Boston, FAIRBANKS, BROWN & CO. 
311 Broadway, New York, FAIRBANKS & CO. 




